Another odd newspaper

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When I first looked at the big, black headline on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today -- "66 killed in July" -- I thought, The heat did that? Then, I saw the word "Afghanistan" in smaller headline type and focused on the gauzy photo, which resembles art from the battlefield. I immediately lost interest, having seen TV reports on the U.S. death toll there all this week.


Then, to the left, an A-1 story about a 105-year-old woman from Englewood who has been chosen for a study on longevity and genetics carries the byline of Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano, who covers the city. It is the second day in a row Page 1 has a story about a black person who didn't commit a crime.

Somehow, the reporter manages to avoid any discussion of the segregation this black woman experienced in Memphis and 1950s Englewood, when people of color could look forward to little more than a job as a maid or chauffeur for one of the rich families who lived on "The Hill." Of course, the East Hill is precisely where former Publisher Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg bought a big house years later and raised the two spoiled brats now running the former Hackensack daily. He made sure to send his kids to private schools.


At least, Fabiano is being consistent. She has completely ignored the segregated elementary and middle schools in Englewood, or reported on efforts to integrate them, if any. Were those schools the reason Publisher Stephen A. Borg bought a mansion in Tenafly?


The third story on A-1 today is a superficial look at the wonderful Jersey Shore and a TV reality show of the same name I have never watched. What I want to know is why even modest homes blocks from the beach are selling for more than $1 million, and why that's not in the story?


There is so much news from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other towns missing from Local today, desperate head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes pulled out all the stops on filler, as her staff apparently were told to start a three-day weekend Friday, a reward for all their hard work.


L-1 carries a story by a business reporter that got lost on the way to publication. L-2 has another Dean's List. The center of L-3 has a photo of a truck-house collision, non-fatal, of course. Gee-whiz, would you look at that. Half of L-5 is taken up by expanded, wire-service obituaries of people we have never heard of. And L-6 has a story from distant Rockaway Township, where The Record and Herald News have been printed since, what, 2007. (Stephen A. Borg ended highly profitable commercial printing at the Rockaway plant and laid off 55 press workers.) Whew.


Also missing is a hit-run accident charged to a prominent Harrington Park landscaper -- that's the burg where Sykes lives -- but it was all over Cliffview Pilot.com on Friday. That town gets even less coverage than Hackensack, if you can imagine that.

Is Sykes trying to protect officials or friends in her town, or is she just lazy? Here, read the story for yourself at the following link:


Harrington Park landscaper arrested