Borgs are selling the front page to highest bidders

Nov. 16, 2013: Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Why are shoppers desperate for a bargain and how big retailing chains do on Thanksgiving front page news in The Record today and every year around the holidays?

Does every advertising contract sold by the Borg publishing family include a clause guaranteeing news coverage to Macy's, Target, Walmart and the other retailers whose glossy fliers are keeping the Woodland Park daily afloat?

Mauling the reader

More than a decade ago, The Record created a retail beat, though the reporter wasn't identified as such in her byline.

What has followed are literally millions of words on the opening of new mall stores -- and the abject neglect of so many struggling downtowns --plus such probing journalism as quoting a maker of mattresses as saying his product is the best in all of sleepdom.

The play on words attempted in the Page 1 headline over today's centerpiece falls flat:

Buy, buy holiday

What about all of the pre-Christmas sales that will be chronicled on the front page in less than a month?

The first paragraph also raises the question of when most people eat Thanksgiving dinner. Isn't it early to mid-afternoon?

So, why does The Record report: 

"North Jersey shoppers showed they're willing to reschedule Thanksgiving dinner."

Apparently, that first sentence was based on an interview at the very end of the story with a 19-year-old Paterson man at Best Buy who said he didn't mind missing Thanksgiving dinner to get a good deal on a TV for his mother (A-6).

Puck you, editor says

If only the wealthy Borgs are really interested in how retailers are doing, why did Editor Marty Gottlieb think anyone would care how the pathetic Devils are doing on selling tickets in Newark (A-1).

The hockey team has managed to lift its ranking among 30 teams to 20th from 24th (A-8).

The story doesn't say a word on such factors as the cost of tickets and parking or  whether food and beer prices at the Prudential Center are exorbitant.

Spacey columnist

On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski is back with a compelling commuting issue:

Finding parking at the mall on Black Friday (L-1).

The silly column for "road warriors" appears just below two stories about the increasing number of people who can't afford to buy food five years after the start of the Great Recession.

Why aren't those stories on Page 1 today?

Record errors

On Wednesday, Cichowski scored a record 21 errors in his column on Monday's meeting of the state Transportation Committee in Trenton, according to a concerned reader.

Some of the mistakes were quotes that were made up, according to the reader.

As an example of the errors, the reader, in an e-mail to managers and editors, noted:

"Road Warrior indicated that Bill Baroni, a PA executive, managed to explain away an unannounced change in a George Washington Bridge traffic pattern that caused five days of gridlock in Fort Lee.

"As the committee chairman and majority of committee members made very clear, Baroni tried, but did not manage, to explain away or provide all needed documents and information about the unannounced change that only caused four days -- not five -- of gridlock."

To read the full e-mail, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Blooppers:

Is the Road Warrior hard of hearing?

Local yokels

In today's Local section, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sfroza again fell flat on his face in attempting to fill the section with legitimate local news:

Check out the long, wire-service obituaries for Alfred Feld, Jane Kean and Ye Htut -- three more people you have never heard of (L-5).