Hey, Frank, who the F cares?

Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

The biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history isn't enough of a front-page story for Editor Frank Scandale, who is more jock than journalist. Today, The Record of Woodland Park glorifies the Russian fat-cat owner of the hapless Nets basketball team with a huge A-1 photo and story by one of its biggest hacks, Staff Writer John Brennan.


Brennan likely helped talk this story onto Page 1, as he did obsessively with all the nonsense he covered when I was still at The Record, and found a sympathetic audience in Scandale, Tim Nostrand and other desperate editors. Meanwhile, readers looking for essential information about their towns were ignored, as they are now.


Greedy BP's blunders in the Gulf are shoved down below the fold on A-1. The oil platform disaster is on the cover of Time magazine and leads the CBS Evening News every day, but Scandale's Record bounces the story onto and off of the front page without rhyme or reason. Of course, we know how flawed Scandale's  news judgment is after he relegated Tom Franklin's incredible 9/11 photo to a back page.


Yet, after taking over from Mac Daddy, Publisher Stephen A. Borg not only kept Scandale on, but promoted him to vice president. Did anyone in the news meetings Borg attended see him and Frank slap each other on the ass after placing yet another sports or business of sports story on A-1?


Meanwhile, coverage of the World Cup in Sports has been lackluster.


Local leads with a Star-Ledger story on a $2.5 million settlement for a hotel clerk, but the reporter leaves readers in the dark on how much of that will be going to the lawyer (probably a third, plus expenses). Don't look for substantial Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news in the section.

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado's sole contribution today is a too-long story on a ruling to withhold pay from suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa. She has yet to report details of the proposed city budget and tax hike, which are going before the City Council tonight for the second time. You can thank head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who has been pulling Monsy's strings for years.

There is also a short story on the closing of the Court Street Bridge for two years to refurbish the span, too weak for trucks over 3 tons. The project will make the Borgs' nearly 20 acres on the Hackensack River a lot more valuable, especially to a big box retailer that wants as much access as possible.

Looking at the 2003 photo with the obituary of singer Jimmy Dean on L-1 today makes me think he ate too much of the mystery meat that went into his breakfast sausage. I also realize how little impact Dean (Tenafly), Eddie Murphy (Englewood) and other celebrities who lived in North Jersey had on neighbors or their towns.


There is no local food news in Better Living today. A story from the Contra Costa Times on "shopping healthfully" completely omits any mention of avoiding food with antibiotics, growth hormones, animal byproducts, pesticides and other harmful additives.

No news sections today

Eddie Murphy via last.fm

I didn't receive the main news and Local sections with The Record of Woodland Park today, so let's look at Real Estate and the other sections I did get. (Customer service promised delivery of the news sections within two hours.)


In Real Estate, Staff Writer Kathy Lynn reports that in 2007, 143 homes sold for more than $2 million in Bergen County. Of course, one of those was the $3.65 million estate in Tenafly purchased with a company mortgage by Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- only months before layoffs and the departure of many veteran employees.


The greed of some home owners is clear. Eddie Murphy was asking $30 million in 2004 for an Englewood home he bought in 1985 for $3.5 million. (Borg sold the home he bought for $865,000 with his first company mortgage in 1999 for $2 million.) What does Michele Kolsky of  Coldwell Banker in Fort Lee really think of buyers? "All last year, [they] were under a rock." So I guess she is saying they are nothing more than bugs.


Better Living has a recipe for tomatillos as the only food coverage today.


In Opinion, the most interesting reading is in letters to the editor. The paper also found room today to print guidelines for writing letters, without mentioning the volume of readers' letters is so great, letters from employees, including editors, reporters and copy editors, won't be accepted or published.


That policy hasn't really been a problem at The Record because few newsroom employees believe in anything or are willing to go out on a limb to support others employees whose rights have been routinely violated.