Stephen Borg is fingered as 'the real problem'

Publisher Stephen A. Borg in an undated image from a Web site called "Who Needs Newspapers?"

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Here is an eye-opening comment from an anonymous source about Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who just fired Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale:

"[Frank] Scandale may have been spineless and a poor leader. But you should know that the real problem at The Record is [Publisher] Stephen Borg, who personally dictates what beats the paper will cover, which stories will be written and how they will be written. 

 "Every important story is personally word edited by Borg. Any story that affects his wealthy friends is killed. 

"Even as we speak, Bergen County Executive Kathe Donovan is asking local officials to approve potentially risky PILOT bonds to finance the Xanadu shopping mall.  

"The plan is being pushed by her former campaign strategist, a lobbyist named Alan C. Marcus. At the same time Marcus is advising Donovan about this huge and costly project he is also working as a paid consultant for Triple Five, the developer who is now behind the Xanadu mall and stands to benefit if Donovan approves the financing scheme. 

"A conflict of interest? In Stephen Borg's world, Marcus' involvement on both ends of this deal is not even worth a story. I am told by sources at The Record that Marcus talks on an almost daily basis with the Borg family and had this story killed. 

"Marcus was also instrumental in pushing county reporter Mike Gartland off the county beat because Gartland tried to write stories exploring Donovan's policies, including the fact that Marcus' role in controlling access to the new executive. 

"Gartland, an extraordinary reporter, has now quit and is headed for the NY Post. The Record may have many problems, but none is more frightening than a publisher whose willful ignorance and bullyism has frozen the staff and instilled terror in editors whose daily decisions are overriden."

Give us news we care about

Image via Wikipedia

This imposing mansion is literally the Poor House -- where Henry W. Poor lived. Standard & Poor's has downgraded New Jersey's credit rating, partly because of above-average debt in a state that loves to borrow but won tax millionaires any differently than the rest of us.

Have readers been losing sleep trying to figure out what was going through the troubled mind of a gunman who shot a Paramus cop five times? 

His death Wednesday, according to the stiffly written lead of a Page 1 story today, leaves "unanswered a series of questions about his mind-set as the violent sequence of events unfolded." His mind-set? La di da.

Why does this story appear on A-1 of The Record of Woodland Park today? 

Even if failed Editor Francis Scandale insisted it belonged on the front, it should have taken second fiddle to another story below the fold: Staff Writer Michael Gartland's terrific interview with Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, who vows not to raise taxes this year as she cuts up to $40 million in budget fat left by her Democratic predecessor.

No sleaze factor

Here is a Republican who is earning the respect of even lifelong Democrats, unlike Governor Christie, whose pandering to the wealthy seems to have the full approval of Scandale, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and other editors.  

After all, Donovan appears to be making good on a campaign promise that Christie has so far failed to fulfill.

As the state's credit rating takes a hit, The Record simply refuses to put the governor's feet to the fire on why he's ignored hundreds of millions in new revenue from a tax surcharge on millionaires, and why he won't boost the nearly bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund with a modest increase in the low gas tax.

Instead, he wants to borrow $4.4 billion to replenish that fund, which repairs roads and aids mass transit (A-6), and that is helping to undermine New Jersey's credit rating (A-1).

Another correction

The embarrassing correction on  A-2 today follows two embarrassing corrections on Wednesday.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes relies on one of those gee-whiz, non-fatal accident photos to fill her Local front today, as she has done on so many days in the past. What do the talented photographers think of being reduced to ambulance chasers?

Do readers need a 15-inch preview story on every single town and school district that plans to install solar panels, as they get at the top of L-6 today? In Bloomingdale, no less.

 

A second look

Did anyone understand why Margulies' cartoon on A-10 on Wednesday used the year 1612 and not 1912?

Christie is shown on TV saying, "I'm not ready to run for president in 2012..." and a viewer is shown saying, "...but it looks like he's gearing up for 1612..." while holding a paper with the headline, "Christie vetoes of women's health funds."