More from Jerry DeMarco

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Here is the second part of comments from former Breaking News Editor Jerry DeMarco on what may be behind The Record's so-called investigations:

Might it be a onetime-ally-turned-foe, one whose rep has never been smudged by the RSR's newsprint? (Oh, wait; they're on Squirrelwood Road now.) Might this person have found the right tool to carry out vendettas vs. these men? (Bonus points if you can figure out the agitator & the editor who got played.)

Yes, Vicster, if you want to lay it, you just might find a pattern -- an agenda, if you will -- the kind of thing that, in other quarters, leads to whispers of conspiracy.

Sure, I could ask: What does it that a single 52yo pro can beat you not only to the biggest story of 2010, if not the past several years?

Ask ANY reporter who ever worked for me -- there were plenty -- and they'll tell you I had a single hard/fast rule: Don't get beat in our backyard....I guess the Woodland Park chief would have to be arrested for that to be considered here.

But there's a much more important distinction, & you've finally begun to expose it, Mr. Sasson: That is, exactly who is serving whom here?

"Friend of the people it serves"? More like "Friend of the a-hole buddy" who, in the end, still got the preferred heads on a platter -- except for Mordaga's -- thanks to honest, hard-working, patient, fair & deliberate law enforcers.

Maybe that's why they changed the slogan.

I say change it again: "If it's news, it's news to us."

I'm goin' away for awhile, my friend. Gonna put some genuine energy into the site. Maybe I'll continue to have weeks like this, & I won't end up with Sunday stories about volcanic ash or other developments my readers consider important.

While I'm gone: Give 'em hell, brother....

New Year's resolutions?

On the last day of 2009, Page 1 of  The Record of Woodland Park focuses on politics in the Garden State and gives precious space to one of the biggest windbags around, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, speaking about security lapses. On Page A-2, the former Hackensack daily continues its dishonesty by saying the paper is published at 150 River St., when it long has been printed in Rockaway Township and virtually all of its editorial staff  left River City this year.

Meanwhile, stories on the state's growing financial problems are played inside the paper. I can't remember when The Record has reminded readers of what a lousy job Kean did as governor, hiding a huge deficit from incoming Democrat Jim Florio.

The Local section finally has a story about Teaneck by Staff Writer Joseph Ax -- the community policing unit is being disbanded because of budget constraints. But the story is silent on whether the millions the self-insured township has had to pay to cover employee lawsuits could have saved the successful outreach effort.

The Englewood reporter, Giovanna Fabiano, was sent to cover a fatal fire in Ramsey, giving her an excuse for not having a story about her city, which has segregated elementary and middle schools; nightmarish downtown traffic and residents who awaken to gunshots from an open-air police firing range. There is no Hackensack story today.

I can only hope that the Borgs, who control North Jersey Media Group, and the lazy, incompetent editors of The Record get their heads out of their ample behinds and take a good look at what has happened in the past couple of years to a once-great suburban daily. Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who took over from father Malcolm A. Borg in 2006, seems intent only on personal enrichment at the expense of employees and retirees. "I'm not in this for the money," he told the assembled staff. What a joke.

I know he and sister Jennifer A. Borg are not journalists, but it might be time for them to seriously assess the job being done by the editors, including Frank Scandale, Frank Burgos, Deirdre Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Doug Clancy, Jim McGarvey, Liz Houlton, Barbara Jaeger, Bill Pitcher, Alfred Doblin and such sub-editors as Richard Whitby and Dan Sforza, and clean house. The paper doesn't need any of them to do its job of chronicling life in North Jersey, especially restoring the focus on Bergen County.

And I hope I see assignment editors do less hand-holding of reporters and give them more free rein to cover stories they feel are important.

Click on the link below for some of the low-lights of 2009

Decade in review: Our paper changed, 12/27/09