New flight path won't end those unbelievably noisy takeoffs

Planes low over South Hackensack as they landed at the Port Authority owned Teterboro Airport in 2014, above and below. The aircraft with the propeller in the nose, above, is one of the noisiest to use the airport regularly.

Business jets like this one are the biggest users of Teterboro, which is favored by the 1 percent, celebrities and corporate executives, and flights originating in Europe.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What could possibly be noisier than a business jet landing at Teterboro Airport?

Any resident of Hackensack, South Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other nearby towns will tell you it's the roar from those jets when they take off that can be even more annoying.

Today, Editor Deirdre Sykes again is making a big deal on the front page of The Record over a new fight path to Teterboro Airport -- after decades of ignoring the noise generated by the old one.

And at least half of that noise comes from jets and other aircraft that take off from the Port Authority owned airport -- usually at full power.

That roar or boom can be heard for miles around, and many of those ascending aircraft turn immediately over Hackensack's Fairmount section.

Borg and Teterboro

In the 1980s, the biggest complaint from Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg of Englewood, owner and publisher of The Record, wasn't airport noise.

He summoned the Port Authority's new executive director to lunch in his private dining room in Hackensack, and demanded to know when the bi-state agency was going to open an aviation museum at Teterboro.

Later, Borg, as chairman of North Jersey Media Group, used Teterboro as a base for the jet he owned with Jon F. Hanson, the real estate mogul who has advised and raised funds for Governor Christie.

I can't recall any articles about Teterboro aircraft noise in The Record's Local section during the many years Sykes was the head assignment editor there.

Atlantic City

After reading all of The Record's coverage of the casino bust and Atlantic City's financial problems, North Jersey voters are expected to resoundingly reject a November ballot proposal for two casinos here.

Today, Staff Writer John Brennan calls the state's attempt to take control of Atlantic City's finances "rhetorical crossfire among the three leading elected officials in Trenton" (A-4).

What else can you expect from a former sports reporter?

Affordable housing

Staff Writer Marina Villeneuve manages to write a long story about Bergen County towns opposed to affordable housing, and not mention that most of the people who would live there are black and Hispanic (L-1).

In her first paragraph today, she refers to them as "people of modest means." 

That sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it?

Nor does she explore the racial motivation of officials who block the low- and moderate-cost housing, except for her last two paragraphs.

There, she cites a Mack-Cali Realty lawsuit that called Upper Saddle River "segregated" (L-6).

Significantly, the borough's response doesn't deny that, Villeneuve reports.

Westmont Station

A day after reporting another postponement of the opening of a new NJ Transit rail station in Wood-Ridge, The Record today says the building will finally be ready on May 15 (L-1).

Staff Writer Christopher Maag never explained why NJ Transit didn't provide bus shelters and ticket machines to commuters during the delay, as the agency did for those who used the station that burned down on Anderson Street in Hackensack.

Second look

Tuesday's first Business page was dominated by Staff Writer Joan Verdon's story on fast-casual dining chains eating the lunch of sit-down restaurant chains (L-7 on Tuesday).

What about Lavash City, a fast-casual Armenian spot on Main Street in Hackensack, and similar local restaurants?

When will The Record publicize them? 

Christie fundraiser's ties to the Borg family remain hidden

Passaic Street in Hackensack, Maywood and Rochelle Park is a major thoroughfare, but with only two lanes and few turn lanes, it becomes a major bottleneck during the rush hour and on weekends.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page has a strong Jersey focus for a change, but a story on A-3 today raises questions about the influence of the Borg publishing family on the paper's coverage of Governor Christie.

For the first time, The Record identifies Jon Hanson, chairman and founder of Hampshire Real Estate Cos., as a major fundraiser for Christie.

But nowhere in the story by Melissa Hayes will you find any mention of the close friendship between Hanson and Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, owner of the Woodland Park daily.

Nor does Hayes report that last January, Hanson's Hampshire Cos. helped arrange a sale-leaseback deal on NJMG's Rockaway Township printing plant and land with Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

You can read about Hanson's other ties to the Borgs here:

Borgs rely on Christie ally is sale of Rockaway plant

Friendly coverage

The Record's coverage of Christie has been friendly, to say the least, since he took office in early 2010.

Columnist Charles Stile often wrote about Christie's so-called Reform Agenda, and never challenged the GOP bully's claim to be a compromiser who could work with the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Stile also began reporting on whether Christie would run for president in 2016 two or more years ago.

350 and counting

In fact, it wasn't until March of this year that another reporter in Trenton wrote a story for The Record, noting for the first time how many vetoes Christie used to get his way with the Legislature.

He exercised his veto power "at least 350 times," the story reported. How's that for "compromise"?

See:

Christie vetoes set a record for a N.J. governor

Has Hanson's close friendship with the Borgs influenced the friendly coverage of Christie, who has turned out to be the worst governor in New Jersey history?

What motive would The Record's editors have to continually hide the Hanson-Borg relationship -- unless they were ordered to?

More corrections

A-2 today carries two major corrections, including one in which the local editors admit they didn't know the identity of the mayor of Carlstadt.

Local news?

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza couldn't find enough local news for today's section.

So, readers find another large, gee-whiz, filler photo on L-3.

A four-vehicle chain reaction accident on Route 208 in Fair Lawn was precipitated by a BMW driver who was speeding or following too closely and rammed the rear of a Toyota sedan (L-3).

No names appear in the photo caption, and readers don't know whether the BMW driver was issued any summonses.

As this and hundreds of other drive-by accident images have demonstrated in recent years, the L-3 photo is intended as filler, not as information.

Borg family's interests trump civility at public meetings

Richard E. Salkin speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Salkin doesn't identify himself as the attorney for the city's Board of Education, which is allied with the Zisa family and the local Democratic Party that lost the 2013 municipal election. A frequent critic of the current council, he is usually quoted in The Record without that title, the same "anonymity" the paper accords to members of the losing council slate.

The five-member City Council with City Attorney Thomas P. Scrivo, left, and City Manager David R. Troast, front.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's progress on selling 19.7 acres near downtown Hackensack to a developer dominates The Record's Local news section today.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, wrote a story that ignores unanimous passage of an ordinance governing public comment.

The "Rules of Order" were introduced on Nov. 25 after critics of the council -- principally those who lost the 2013 municipal election -- launched one abrasive attack after another against officials for just about every hire and proposal they made, including a downtown performance space.

Many of the attacks were reported in The Record without identifying the critics as Zisa family allies and members of the local Democratic Party, which lost the 2013 municipal election to a slate of reformers led by John P. Labrosse Jr., who is now mayor.

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported what happened at a Nov. 10 council meeting The Record didn't cover:

"Another incident in which the First Amendment right was brought into question took place at the Nov. 10 council meeting, when resident [and Board of Education Attorney] Richard Salkin, who is a vocal critic of a number of the council members, in particular of councilwoman Rose Greenman, referred to her as a "sociopath."

"This allegation drove Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of the mayor -- to say she will not tolerate name calling.

"I'm not going to tolerate that," she said. "Address people with respect, that's all I ask. We are respecting you, respect us back."

Profit motive

The 150 River St.  parcel and adjacent property is the former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily newspaper, The Record, which prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving The Record's newsroom to a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodand Park.

A few years earlier, Borg moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008. 

Those two decisions seemed to set into motion a precipitous decline in the quality of editing and reporting at a newspaper still referred to as "The Bergen Record."

The 19.7 Hackensack acres are expected to fetch $20 million or more.

City study

On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a study to determine whether the NJMG parcel should be declared as an "area in need of redevelopment," a designation that could entitle any developer to tax breaks for up to 30 years, The Record reports (L-1).

The lead paragraph of the story says the property, two blocks east of Main St. in Hackensack, is 20 acres, but the second paragraph calls it a "19.7-acre site."

Labrosse, the mayor, said any development would have to include a walkway along the Hackensack River and a park where the USS Ling submarine is tied up on NJMG property.

Hackensack's Venice

A Walmart Super Center was rumored for the 19.7 acres a couple of years ago, and then gazillionaire Fred Daibes of Edgewater proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development, but that fell through.

Apartments wouldn't seem suitable for what former employees recall as a property prone to frequent flooding that claimed the cars of more than one staffer.

I can recall one storm that surrounded the 150 River St. building with so much water the managers pressed into service newspaper delivery trucks to pick up employees from higher ground a block away.

See a previous post:

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

CIA torture

It's hard to tell who is more upset by the CIA's "brutal interrogation program" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America (A-1).

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the harsh interrogation techniques a "stain on the nation's history."

But the media are playing up incidents that occurred more than a decade ago before reforms instituted by President Obama.

Could CNN and other media outlets really be upset they've been denied sensational YouTube videos of CIA operatives decapitating suspected terrorists?

Cichowski, Kelly and Ervolino -- take a hint

Can you guess the location of this photo in Bergen County, near Hackensack?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The wrong columnist announced his retirement in The Record's thin Sunday edition today.

Kevin DeMarrais, the paper's lone voice for the consumer, is bowing out after 20 years, without saying whether the Your Money's Worth column will be written by someone else (B-1).

Of course, DeMarrais was the least offensive of The Record's veteran, white-male news columnists.

Readers would love to see last columns from John Cichowski, the error-prone Road Warrior; Mike Kelly, the reporter who pushes words around and rarely ventures a strong opinion; and Bill Ervolino, whose funny stand-up routine falls flat on the printed page.

DeMarrais pats himself on the back, and thanks "senior management and editors" for their support, "even when I got advertisers upset."

But he doesn't mention his failures, including never listing organic and naturally raised food in his monthly survey of supermarket prices.

Nor does he remind readers he went to bat for a businesswoman, without telling readers she had sold a private jet to North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and his best friend, real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

Today's paper

If you count the story that leads the paper today and opinion columns, nearly three full pages of the Sunday edition are devoted to analyzing Governor Christie's actions in the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee (A-1 and O-1).

Did anyone get through the Page 1 "ANALYSIS" of "key words" in the 344-page report that Christie commissioned at taxpayers' expense -- a report that has been denounced as a self-serving whitewash?

Editor Marty Gottlieb thinks readers have all the time in the world to plow through stories and columns that are top-heavy with background and bury the "nut graf" -- the hard-hitting conclusion or opinion.

Try not to fall asleep reading the "nut graf" of today's long and winding piece at the top of A-1:

"The report prepared by lead attorney Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn appears to diverge from those [investigative] standards in several ways, according to an analysis by The Record and interviews with experienced investigators."

Three reporters and an unknown number of editors and graphic artists worked on this snorefest, which goes a long way toward explaining why young people don't read newspapers anymore.

Local-news follies

Readers looking for local news today strike out, thanks to Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and writers of the photo captions.

On the Local front, none of the five donors to the Pascack Valley Meals on Wheels are identified in the caption (L-1).

On L-3, a photo caption blames a power outage in Leonia on a "primary splice fail" that caused smoke and a small explosion.

The section includes municipal news from Kinnelon and West Milford, but nothing from Teaneck or Hackensack.

Restaurant propaganda

On the Better Living cover, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is trying to make us believe none of her readers are upset about ever-higher prices, especially $9 or $10 for a single glass of wine, or a tipping system that puts the burden on the customer to provide servers with a living wage (BL-1).

Second look

A story on moving Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School "toward full integration" makes no mention of doing the same at the city's segregated elementary and middle schools (Friday's Local front).

Cowardly columnists, sloppy editing and potholes

A pothole on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, where I haven't seen any crews repairing pockmarked streets that bend car wheels and blow out tires, and have drivers cursing their public officials.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Why is Columnist Charles Stile wasting readers' time today by examining what Governor Christie said as long ago as 2011, but never saying whether he thinks the GOP bully is lying about his role in the Bridgegate scandal?

That's what readers want from a columnist for The Record -- an opinion, a point of view, an accusation based on the seasoned Trenton reporter's experience dealing with public officials.

Instead, the best Stile can do is say "Christie's credibility -- and his career -- are in the shadow of a scandal" (A-1).

This "scandal" thing is a variation of what he wrote in his boring column on Friday: 

"Recast by scandal as a bully whose aides closed off part of the George Washington Bridge as a political revenge plot...." 

He's no Breslin

Of course, it's Stile's credibility that is on the line, along with the credibility of the paper's other columnists, including Road Warrior John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, who can't muster any strong opinions, either.

Instead of condemning municipal crews' half-assed job of snow removal and pothole repair in the region, Cichowski's column on Thursday delved into fantasy, based on a single driver's comment:

“'It seems like every street corner has snow piles up to the heavens, making it impossible to turn onto any street.'

"Yet," a concerned reader noted, "there were no reports of regionwide or local traffic gridlock, if it really was 'impossible to turn onto any street.'

"The Road Warrior’s column predicted that 'current accumulations are likely to keep streets narrow and dangerous for weeks' due to freezing temperatures, even though four straight days of temperatures in the 50s and three days of rain would melt a lot of the snow."

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers by clicking on the following link:

Road Warrior puts up factual roadblocks 

Good for transit

What is the big deal about leasing a North Bergen park-and-ride lot to NJ Transit for $1 a year, even if the agency was a client of lawyer David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority (A-1 on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and today)?

NJ Transit is the state's mass-transit agency -- not a profit-making company -- and in giving up $900,000 in revenue from the lot in 2012, the Port Authority was, in effect, making a contribution to the viability of public transit and helping to ease traffic congestion.

The bi-state agency is supported by fees and tolls, not taxes, and operates the PATH commuter rail system, owns hundreds of buses used by NJ Transit and others, and runs the reverse express bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

No question

Today's Page 1 story by Staff Writer Shawn Boburg actually reports Samson "has been the focus of questions about whether clients of his law firm benefited from his public position."

"Whether"? 

Weeks ago, National Public Radio (WNYC-FM) reported lobbying and legal work boomed at Samson's law firm after Christie named him chairman of the Port Authority.

Those clients know a good thing when they see it -- their lawyer at the pinnacle of power.  

Wasting our time

The front of Local today carries another Road Warrior column -- this one about drivers who run  stop signs at a traffic circle in the Bergen County backwater of Franklin Lakes (L-1).

Drivers run stop signs everywhere. Why waste an entire column on this spot? 

What about an epidemic of speeding and aggressive driving, and the dramatic decline in the enforcement of traffic laws on highways and in many towns.

Why not report on Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga's crackdown on traffic violations? 

Sloppy editing

Also on the Local front today is a beautifully written local obituary for Sidney Kronish, who lived to 101, with an inexplicable flaw in the first paragraph:

"Rozanne Zweig addressed the mourners as she stood aside [italics added] her boyfriend's simple pine coffin."

Shouldn't that be "beside" or "next to" the coffin? Where were the assignment, news and copy editors who went over this obituary? Were they asleep at their computers?

Silence is golden

On the Opinion front, Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who was press secretary to two Republican governors, discusses the stresses of a job now held by Mike Drewniak, Governor Christie's discredited chief spokesman (O-1).

Golden doesn't explain why Drewniak, a former Star-Ledger reporter in Trenton, has such a foul mouth or why he cursed and belittled former colleagues who were looking into the Bridgegate scandal.

Drewniak has laid low in the weeks since his expletive-filled e-mails emerged, and no one has reported whether it is a coincidence his last name rhymes with "maniac."

Jets v. residents

The Business front cover story on increased private-jet activity at Teterboro Airport is a royal F.U. to residents of Teaneck, Hackensack and other towns who are kept awake by all of those noisy planes (B-1).

Nor does it report that Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg is the filthy rich co-owner of one of the unregulated private jets that seem to be screaming overhead day and night. 

Editors scramble to catch up to big local story

These rules of conduct displayed on an NJ Transit local train to Suffern, N.Y., above and below, help explain why Governor Christie has such disdain for mass transit. The GOP bully surely would be thrown off the train if he tried his in-your-face, insulting behavior with other commuters.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record of Woodland Park continues to play catch up today on a big Hackensack story -- the untimely death of prominent businessman Jerome S. Some, who was killed crossing the street in front of his Prospect Avenue high-rise on Tuesday night.

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza has struggled to keep up with the story since then, even following the lead of this blogger in reporting charges against the driver and interviewing the 87-year-old's survivors.

It doesn't seem possible for a daily newspaper, but here it is the fourth day after Some's death and Sforza is only now naming the poor man's widow, Diane Some, who is shown in a photo on the Local front (L-1).

The photo runs with a story on Friday's humor- and tear-filled funeral in Hackensack.

Local editor wilts

Running the local-news operation in the absence of his boss has exhausted Sforza, but the former reporter is doing a good job padding his report with Law & Order news, photos of minor fires and accidents (L-3 and L-4) and wire service obits of obscure people (L-5 and L-6).

Food crystal ball

What's the point of the Better Living cover story today on "the next big trends in cuisine" (BL-1)?

It's pretty clear the North Jersey chefs interviewed have at least one eye on the bottom line: 

Not one predicted that restaurants will be serving more organic and naturally raised or grown food, knowing that would cut into their profits.

Second look

It's hard to believe that Friday's front-page story on so-called apartheid schools in New Jersey completely omitted mention of Englewood's long-segregated public schools.

The elementary and middle schools in the white-ruled city certainly fit the profile: "1 percent or fewer of the students are white."

Maybe someone can explain to me how North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, former publisher of The Record, could have lived on Englewood's East Hill for decades and allowed his newspaper to be so derelict in its duty to the city's minorities.

Of course, his children, Stephen and Jennifer, were considered too special to attend public schools. And now that they are running The Record, they have as much disdain for Englewood's public schools as their father.

Cashing in on 9/11

The Borgs refused to spend a few thousand dollars to remake the front page on Sept. 11, 2001, and relegated to a back page the iconic photo of firemen raising the American flag over the rubble of the World Trade Center.

But in recent years, Jennifer A. Borg, Esq., the paper's hotshot lawyer, has milked the photo for all of the damages she can win from people who violate NJMG's copyright.

On Thursday, an L-3 story in The Record reported NJMG is seeking as much as $150,000 in damages from Jeanine Pirro, a Fox TV personality, for such a violation.

A few years ago, a glossy 8-by-10-inch copy of Tom Franklin's famous photo was inserted into copies of The Record.

On the other side was an advertisement for a Ford dealer in Hackensack.

Finally, a news story on Englewood's racial divide

One of the many empty storefronts on Palisade Avenue in Englewood, a city of 30,000 that has always been divided by income and race. City Hall is reflected in the window of this shuttered restaurant.

Today's Page 1 story on "a divided Englewood" is likely the first time in decades The Record has acknowledged the city's long-standing racial and class divisions. 

Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, who lives on the city's wealthy East Hill, typifies white residents.

Borg sent his children to private schools, and the newspaper he owns, although located only 6 miles from Englewood until 2009,  has never been a force for change in the divided city or its segregated schools.

Today's story on neglect of the city ice rink is another sad chapter in a city dominated by wealthy white residents, including an influx of Orthodox Jewish families.

Simply put, they resent having to pay property taxes for public schools they don't use, and certainly don't want to pay higher taxes to repair the ice rink or turn the 100-year-old Lincoln School into a community center, because both are in a minority neighborhood.

Cat's meow

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes gives more ink to the search for kittens stuck in an Elmwood Park drainage pipe than she ever has to drivers killed in single-car accidents (Local front).

On L-5, a story about a lawsuit against current and former Hackensack police officers reports it was filed last week in "New Jersey" Superior Court.

Ex-staffer returns

Esther Davidowitz, who was a reporter at The Record in the 1970s, has been named food editor, replacing Susan Leigh Sherrill.

Two briefs credited to her appear today on BL-3 (one with a typo), and she was listed as food editor in a BL-2 box on Sunday.

Readers have been starving for better coverage of food and nutrition, including recipes that don't rely so heavily on artery clogging butter and cream or antibiotic-filled meat and poultry.

Davidowitz was editor in chief of Westchester Magazine, and former editor at two other magazines. First for Woman and Women's Day.

In the 1970s, Davidowitz covered local news out of The Record's sexually liberated Hackensack newsroom.

More road errors

Try as he might, Road Warrior John Cichowski can't seem to get it right, no matter what he fills his column with.

On Friday, in discussing the pivotal role of U.S. Sen. Frank R. Launtenberg, D-N.J., in improving transportation, Cichowski played fast and loose with the facts, as an e-mail to Editor Marty Gottlieb explains:

"When reminiscing and paying tribute to [the late] Frank R. Lautenberg, who was known as  'Mr. Transportation,' it would be nice if The Road Warrior did not dishonor his memory with false facts in his column of June 7.

 
"The Road Warrior incorrectly reported the original cost (which he grossly overstated in previous columns) of the Secaucus Junction rail station.

"He also FAILED to mention its full official name as the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station at Secaucus Junction.

"He also missed the creation of NJ Transit by close to a decade, and the number of NJ Transit lines that go to Secaucus Junction."

Read the full e-mail at the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Errors derail readers again

Is Walmart coming to Hackensack?

Image via Wikipedia

A 2005 protest in Utah tried to block a Walmart store.

Walmart has agreed to pay at least $15 million for about 20 acres of land on River Street in Hackensack, where the old headquarters of The Record and North Jersey Media Group await the wrecking ball, according to an anonymous source.

If Walmart builds a store there, it will join two other big-box retailers along the street, Costco Wholesale and Target, as well as Pep Boys. 

The land where Target built a store was sold for $10 million, the source said today, adding the Walmart deal could be worth as much as $20 million.

The deal is said to have been brokered by Jon F. Hanson, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friend. They co-own a personal jet.

A Walmart store on the land would be a change of use and require site-plan approval, a city building official said on Monday. He said nothing has been filed. 

The Bergen Evening Record Corp. is listed in tax records as owning three parcels of land at 150 River St., 80 River St. and 76 Bridge St., including the Heritage Restaurant. 

It's not known if the The New Jersey Naval Museum at 78 River St. and the submarine U.S.S. Ling are part of the property.

Bill Wertz, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said in an e-mail the company hasn't signed an agreement to buy the River Street parcels. 

"Yes, we are interested in Hackensack, along with other communities" in New Jersey, Wertz said, adding that for competitive reasons, the company doesn't comment on rumors or discuss its plans "until we are ready to make a decision."

He said 20 acres -- the approximate size of the NJMG property -- is adequate for a Walmart store.

Walmart and the land-owning Borg family have something in common: a disdain for unions. Both Walmart and NJMG managers are known for treating workers poorly, though the retailer does it on a much larger scale.

Walmart may have low prices, but many consumers refuse to shop there because it mistreats employees. 

The landmark building on River Street has been emptied in recent months, with its contents hauled away in dumpsters. Its demolition is now rumored in city business circles.

Will there be any sign of more than 110 years of journalism tradition after the land is cleared and a huge store is built there? Only Publisher Stephen A. Borg can answer that.

See previous post on Tuesday's paper

Rounding up news of senior citizens

Image via Wikipedia

Old houses and old people -- they're all the same to The Record's editors.

The Record's editors have spent so much time in the past decade making the lives of older newsroom workers miserable, they've neglected news about senior citizens -- until today.

The older population in Bergen County is growing, Page 1 declares. That's earth-shaking news? The census-based story is as much about the increasing number of children in Passaic County's immigrant centers.

Don't expect to see more stories in the Woodland Park daily about Alzheimer's disease or the challenges facing older drivers. 

Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes just don't give a shit -- and the same is true about the spoiled Borg siblings' attitude toward their father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg.

Oldsters and porn

In a roundup of senior news, Scandale made sure to find room on A-1 to promote child-pornography charges against a 63-year-old art teacher in Cliffside Park (L-1).

Pornography? Is that the only thing old people are good for? 

What happened to that lawsuit by a former employee, who alleged the elder Borg used a company computer to send pornography to other male managers?

$40,000 ceiling

Older workers at The Record have been looking over their shoulders since Publisher Stephen A. Borg was overheard several years ago saying he dreamed of a newsroom where no one made more than $40,000 a year. 

Veteran workers found Features Director Barbara Jaeger especially difficult to get along with, and Jaeger hounded Food Editor Patricia Mack into retirement in 2006 -- replacing her with an inexperienced man half her age.

It doesn't add up

The off lead A-1 story today -- on settlement of a 20-year-old water bill -- contains confusing numbers. First, readers are told $1.6 million was in dispute, but just before the jump, the numbers add up to only $1,340,000.

Still, the reporter made sure to tell readers how impressed he was with the size of a 96-apartment building, calling it "huge" in the lead paragraph.

Page A-2 has two embarrassing corrections, including one about a misidentified member of the Ramsey Board of Education. Ouch.

Sykes' Local section is filled with historical news, as well as court and police stories, but is light on municipal news, as usual.

Mac Borg and mogul Jon F. Hanson share private jet

Image via Wikipedia

Look for Malcolm A. Borg's and Jon F. Hanson's private jet at an airport near you.

Editor's note: Since this post was written, Jon F. Hanson has been identified as one of Governor Christie's chief fundraisers, and his real estate company arranged the sale-leaseback of North Jersey Media Group's plant in Rockaway Township, where The Record and Herald News are printed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Malcom A. "Mac" Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, and his family are sharing a  private jet with Jon F. Hanson, a fellow multimillionaire who is Governor Christie's adviser on the New Jersey sports and entertainment industry, including the Meadowlands.

Hanson's recommendations for reviving the Meadowlands Sports Complex appear in a story on the Local front today -- only the latest in a series of stories on Hanson that have appeared recently in The Record of Woodland Park, NJMG's flagship publication.


At the same time, Borg has prevailed on Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes to keep stories on aircraft noise out of the paper, despite the impact all those private jets at Teterboro Airport have had on the quality of life of people living in Hackensack and other towns. 


I can just see some poor schmuck, awakened by another private jet roaring over his house, turning to his wife and complaining, "It's that scumbag Mac Borg again!"


Hanson is chairman and founder of The Hampshire Companies, a sponsor of real estate funds, and has 50 years of experience in the real estate industry.  

Borg, Hanson and Christie -- just three of the powerful men who nurture ties across publishing-journalism, real estate and politics, often hidden from public view.

A Web site listing recent sales by Freestream Aircraft Ltd. says a Citation Excel was "exclusively purchased on behalf of Mr. Malcolm Borg and Mr. John Hanson" (Hanson's first name is misspelled). 


The price isn't given, but Freestream sells jets that cost $10 million to $50 million.

Borg discusses the process of buying the plane in this testimonial about Rebecca Posoli-Cilli, president of Freestream's U.S. office in Hackensack:

"Rebecca’s sales team, but especially Rebecca, was the best thing that happened to us when my friend and I decided to sell our 1984 Citation III and upgrade into a late-model Citation Excel. She had the patience of Job in dealing with me, the lead partner, in the acquisition of our Excel. Without her, we would not have made the great choice we did. She found us a plane with 1100 hours that was 95% equipped with everything desired; she took care of all the pre-buy inspections and details; and she negotiated the upgrades to our avionics with Duncan Aviation.


"Without Rebecca, my friend [Hanson] and his family and my family and I would not be enjoying the wonderful convenience of having our own jet at our disposal. She was simply incredible on all counts, and I recommend her to any potential airplane purchaser without reservation."

• Malcolm A. Borg, Managing Partner – Trio Air Holdings, LLC

A reader commented on northjersey.com about Borg and Hanson in reaction to a Political Stile column that ran  on Jan. 23, 2011:

Sunday January 23, 2011, 2:32 PM - PaigeAve says:
"It also amazing how the prestigous Bergen Record and their insane strong defense for the metropolis of Teterboro, which endorsed County Exe.Donovans position on Teterboro, keep forgetting to mention that the owner of the Bergen Record Mac Borg has a conflict with his alleged sharing of a corporate jet with his BFF, John Hanson, who is a large Teterboro property owner and Christies goto guy on Meadowlands development."

See previous post, Did the Borgs meddle in the news?