Gannett deal has older newsroom staffers shitting in pants

The widely reported sale of the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, to the Gannett company raises many questions. Does the deal include 19.7 acres along River Street in Hackensack, which the city has designated for redevelopment? In recent years, the parking lots of NJMG's old headquarters have been leased to Bergen County and Hackensack University Medical Center, above.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg closed the 150 River St. headquarters of NJMG and The Record in 2009, and shifted operations to a nondescript office building in Woodland Park a few years after moving the printing of the company's daily and weekly newspapers to Rockaway Township.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The reported sale of family owned North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, likely sent shock waves through the Woodland Park newsroom on Thursday, especially among older staffers.

How readers will fare is less certain, because The Record's local-news operation has been on life support for several years.

"Gannett is famous for cutting the budget and staff of newspapers it buys; for replacing veteran journalists with younger, lower-paid employees; for doing cookie-cutter newspapers subject to tightly centralized corporate rules," a columnist for Urban Milwaukee.com wrote last October.

If Gannett replaces newsroom veterans in Woodland Park, the move would recall the major 2008 downsizing ordered by Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- several months after he obtained a $3.65 million mortgage from NJMG to buy a McMansion in Tenafly.

Then, staffers with 20 or more years of experience were shown the door or told to accept buyouts, including the director of photography, community editor and co-supervisor of the copy desk.

Before the downsizing, it was common newsroom practice for supervisors to favor younger employees for promotion, such as the replacement of the food editor with a man who was less than half her age and had none of her talent.

In 2011, Gannett was reported to have reduced editorial staffs at three of its New Jersey dailies -- Daily Record, Home News and Courier News -- to 53 from 99. 

Potential cuts in Woodland Park would include such veteran columnists as Mike Kelly, John Cichowski, Bill Ervolino and Charles Stile. 

Tabloid report

The New York Post broke the news on Thursday afternoon, reporting that Gannett "is getting ready to add to its stable of New Jersey newspapers by snapping up The Record and some weekly newspapers."

Media reporter Keith J. Kelly said:

"The news sent a jolt through the Record newsroom. Beleaguered staffers, who have survived recent rounds of belt-tightening without getting a raise in years, were stunned.

Many were said to be standing around in small groups talking after nypost.com broke the news of the impending sale Thursday."

A number of former Record reporters and editors who have been working at The Post for a decade or more may have been among the "sources" Kelly cited. 

Gannett in N.J.

Gannett already owns the Asbury Park Press and five other dailies in New Jersey, and they joined The Star-Ledger in calling for the resignation of Governor Christie after he endorsed wacko racist Donald J. Trump in the presidential race.

The Record is the only major daily in New Jersey that didn't do the same, leading many readers to question whether the Woodland Park daily still is part of a free and independent press.

The sale of The Record to Gannett has been rumored for years, especially in view of the two publishing companies' business and journalism ties.

Gannett's USA Today and other papers have been printed under contract at NJMG's Rockaway plant. 

Record history

NJ.com picked up the report from The Post, noting NJMG owns The Record and 49 community newspapers, one of which is the weekly Hackensack Chronicle. 

NJ.com is owned by The Star-Ledger, the state's largest newspaper.

The Record is second largest, but its average circulation of 170,163 on Sundays and 135,544 Mondays to Fridays probably includes copies of the Herald News, which was designated an "edition" of the larger paper years ago.

The paper has been owned by the Borg family since 1930.

The Bergen Evening Record was founded in 1895, and prospered for more than 110 years in Hackensack, where the Borgs once lived in mansions on Prospect Avenue and Summit Avenue, in the city's Fairmount section.

The younger Borg is president and publisher, and his father, Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg of Englewood, is chairman of NJMG.

Jennifer A. Borg, Stephen's big sister, is vice president and general counsel of NJMG.

The company also operates NorthJersey.com and Bergen.com, and publishes (201), a lifestyle magazine for Bergen County's wealthiest families.

Today's paper

Page 1 of The Record reports Democratic lawmakers have blocked Christie "from loosening one of New Jersey's toughest gun-control laws on Thursday, turning the tables for once on a governor known for his prolific use of the veto pen" (A-1).

In the court of public opinion, Christie was at the center of the George Washington Bridge lane closures a month before he was reelected in November 2013.

So, why is The Record again using precious space on the front page today to quote his continued stonewalling of an illegal political operation inside the Governor's Office that targeted Democrats, including the mayor of Fort Lee?

Taxpayers were forced to pay more than $10 million to Christie's lawyers for a complete whitewash of his involvement, yet Record editors, columnists and reporters long pointed to the so-called Mastro report as evidence the GOP bully had absolutely nothing to do with ordering the gridlock.

Pricey Italian

Today, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung recommends you fight traffic all the way to Ramsey, then fork over $25 for a small portion of potato dumplings at Bici, a pricey Italian restaurant where she makes the manager sound like a stalker (BL-16).

Ung complains manager Marcelo Gambarato "needs to become less intrusive," calling his five visits to her table "overkill, since most involved having full conversations."

She still managed to eat plenty of rich, artery clogging food topped off by a few gooey desserts.

"Gambarato was so over-hospitable that I was little worried he would follow us down the street and call us the next day," the reviewer notes at the end of her 2.5-star appraisal (Good to Excellent).

She doesn't mention whether he asked for her telephone number.

Departing editor didn't ease crisis at our local daily paper

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record in the Woodland Park newsroom. Reporter Lindy Washburn, the paper's chief medical writer, is at left in this photo by Staff  Photographer Carmine Galasso.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's news story on the retirement of Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record comes at a time of crisis -- a troubled period at the Woodland Park daily the veteran journalist did little to ease.

The Record's local news content, and the quality of editing and reporting, have declined dramatically since Publisher Stephen A. Borg ordered a major downsizing in 2008, and moved North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper out of Hackensack in 2009.

Gottlieb, who took over the newsroom in January 2012, inherited several lazy, incompetent editors, but never cleaned house.

They include Deirdre Sykes, head of the local assignment desk; Assistant Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, Projects Editor Tim Nostrand; and Production Editor Liz Houlton, who has missed hundreds of errors, typos and bad headlines.

Gottlieb also did nothing to curb several veteran columnists, including Charles Stile, Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and Bill Ervolino, printing everything they wrote, no matter how pathetic.

Local news?

Today's Local front story on Gottlieb lists as his main accomplishments:

"Leadership of The Record's coverage of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal," and becoming "a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting for a series examining the spread of heroin in the suburbs" (L-1 and L-6).

But his hands-on editing resulted in stories, especially those on Page 1, becoming longer and less accessible to readers.

And the front page showed a far greater emphasis on national and international news.

All of that came at the expense of covering municipal news in Bergen County, especially in Hackensack, where the Borg publishing family prospered for more than 110 years. 

Today, for example, Staff Writer Todd South is reporting on a Nov. 24 incident for the first time:

Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin has been charged with harassment for allegedly threatening Health Department Registrar Maria Tartaglione (L-1).

'Drop dead'

Salkin was applying for a license to marry former City Clerk Debra Heck, but was told by the registrar "she could not provide the certificate because errors had been crossed out in the license form he provided and corrected in pen," South says.

"You're a piece of shit, drop dead," Salkin allegedly shouted, Tartaglione complained, according to The Bergen Dispatch, which reported the incident on its Web site on Nov. 30. "Do you want me to bury you?"

South, with the approval of his editors, has managed to avoid reporting on the city's Board of Education; the school budget, which this year exceeds the city's own; or anything else to do with the schools.

The board approved a new contract with the Hackensack teachers union on Nov. 12, but that wasn't reported until Friday, when the Hackensack Chronicle carried the nearly month-old news.

Another screw-up

Today's local-news section again shows Sykes' and Sforza's desperation to fill space, with long wire-service obituaries on an obscure Native American activist and an even more obscure crossword puzzle champ (L-6).

Page A-2 carries Houlton's correction of a Road Warrior column last Sunday, in which Cichowski tried to drum up business for a volunteer ride service for seniors.

Unfortunately, the addled, error-prone reporter published the wrong telephone number, and none of the editors who looked at his story actually dialed the number to see if it was correct.

1971 to 2016

Gottlieb, 67, began his journalism career in 1971 as a municipal reporter covering Bergen County towns for The Record.

Then, he worked as a reporter or editor at the Daily News, The New York Times and the Village Voice before returning to the Daily News and The Times, the latter in 1995, working there until he was named editor of The Record in January 2012.

Today's story says he will leave The Record in January, four years after he arrived, basically his way of cruising into retirement.

His departure from The Times, where he was global editions editor from 2008 to 2011, has never been explained.

Another lame story from editors who ditched Hackensack

The Record's front-page story on the redevelopment of Hackensack doesn't discuss inadequate indoor parking in the 222-unit Meridia Metro apartment building under construction on State Street, and whether this empty lot across the street could be turned into additional parking spaces.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I doubt "the face of the new Hackensack" is an apartment building under construction on State Street, although that's what The Record's front page claims today.

But you could find the new Hackensack a couple of blocks away at the recently completed Atlantic Street Park or in Art of Spice, one of the downtown restaurants that opened in the past few months.

Today's story is about a debate over how to market a redeveloping Hackensack (A-1), but there is so much missing from this account it is hardly worthy of Page 1.

Will it work?

And the biggest question of all isn't even asked: 

Will apartment development in downtown Hackensack revive Main Street, once the shopping and entertainment hub of Bergen County?

In Englewood, which has seen intensive apartment development on its main street, Palisade Avenue, as well as along Route 4, empty storefronts are commonplace, and restaurants come and go.

The story incorrectly calls the Meridia Metro building shown on A-1 and A-8 (five floors of apartments over a parking garage) a "residential tower." 

And it doesn't mention the appeal of its location for people who work in New York -- across the street from an NJ Transit express-bus stop and not far from the Essex Street rail station.

'The Sack'

If you want a good laugh, take a look at marketing themes proposed by two professional firms, Axiom of Secaucus, and Words and Pictures of Park Ridge:

"Hackensack: Bergen County's Main Street."

"The Sack: Not Your Mother's Main Street."

"The Sack"? LOL. 

As a taxpayer, I hope the city doesn't turn out to be a "Sack of Woe."

How about sacking that firm, which isn't identified? 

Left Hackensack

This superficial story comes from the same editors who abandoned Hackensack in 2009 on orders from Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

He closed the River Street headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily paper.

A year before, Borg's newsroom downsizing set off a precipitous slide in accuracy and the quality of local reporting that continues today.

On the the land across the street from the Meridia Metro project, passers-by can see what looks like jet skis on a trailer, above; and shuttered businesses, below.

Does the landlord own the expensive Porsche parked behind this building?

Two sides of Christie

The Record's reporters continue to cover Governor Christie's fading campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, months after the paper's editorial writers started to criticize him in harsh terms.

Today, an editorial says replacement of the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan is more important than a new La Guardia Airport (A-16).

"As for Christie, he is more concerned about a few hundred thousand Republican voters in the early presidential primaries and caucuses than he is about the millions of passengers who use the Port Authority Bus Terminal annually.

"A midtown bus terminal is not a Christie priority. Perhaps if the Port Authority were to build it in Iowa, he would come."

Local news?

In Local, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza relied on nearly two pages of police news and a long Dean's List to fill the municipal-news holes in their thin section (L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Christie fundraiser's ties to the Borg family remain hidden

Passaic Street in Hackensack, Maywood and Rochelle Park is a major thoroughfare, but with only two lanes and few turn lanes, it becomes a major bottleneck during the rush hour and on weekends.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page has a strong Jersey focus for a change, but a story on A-3 today raises questions about the influence of the Borg publishing family on the paper's coverage of Governor Christie.

For the first time, The Record identifies Jon Hanson, chairman and founder of Hampshire Real Estate Cos., as a major fundraiser for Christie.

But nowhere in the story by Melissa Hayes will you find any mention of the close friendship between Hanson and Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, owner of the Woodland Park daily.

Nor does Hayes report that last January, Hanson's Hampshire Cos. helped arrange a sale-leaseback deal on NJMG's Rockaway Township printing plant and land with Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

You can read about Hanson's other ties to the Borgs here:

Borgs rely on Christie ally is sale of Rockaway plant

Friendly coverage

The Record's coverage of Christie has been friendly, to say the least, since he took office in early 2010.

Columnist Charles Stile often wrote about Christie's so-called Reform Agenda, and never challenged the GOP bully's claim to be a compromiser who could work with the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Stile also began reporting on whether Christie would run for president in 2016 two or more years ago.

350 and counting

In fact, it wasn't until March of this year that another reporter in Trenton wrote a story for The Record, noting for the first time how many vetoes Christie used to get his way with the Legislature.

He exercised his veto power "at least 350 times," the story reported. How's that for "compromise"?

See:

Christie vetoes set a record for a N.J. governor

Has Hanson's close friendship with the Borgs influenced the friendly coverage of Christie, who has turned out to be the worst governor in New Jersey history?

What motive would The Record's editors have to continually hide the Hanson-Borg relationship -- unless they were ordered to?

More corrections

A-2 today carries two major corrections, including one in which the local editors admit they didn't know the identity of the mayor of Carlstadt.

Local news?

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza couldn't find enough local news for today's section.

So, readers find another large, gee-whiz, filler photo on L-3.

A four-vehicle chain reaction accident on Route 208 in Fair Lawn was precipitated by a BMW driver who was speeding or following too closely and rammed the rear of a Toyota sedan (L-3).

No names appear in the photo caption, and readers don't know whether the BMW driver was issued any summonses.

As this and hundreds of other drive-by accident images have demonstrated in recent years, the L-3 photo is intended as filler, not as information.

Behold the Columnist Mike Kelly Memorial Toilet Seat

Four days ago, a dirty snowbank at the Bergen Town Center mall in Paramus was an unwelcome reminder of the bitter, storm-filled winter we experienced. By Friday, the snow still hadn't melted completely.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest critics of The Record's editors, columnists and reporters aren't the readers, many of whom pay little attention to bylines.

They are the copy editors -- faceless newsroom employees who work the night shift in a thankless job of trying to enforce standards of accuracy, style and grammar.

At the Woodland Park daily, they are last line of defense before the paper is printed in Rockaway Township. 

Before Publisher Stephen A. Borg put into motion a major newsroom downsizing in Hackensack in 2008 -- prelude to North Jersey Media Group moving to the sticks the following year -- I was one of those copy editors.

We worked without meal or coffee breaks and were allowed to pick the stories we wanted to edit and write headlines for unless they were destined for the front page or a section front.

Inside Kelly

In those days, columns by veteran reporter Mike Kelly ran inside the paper, on Page A-3, and were literally shunned by the highly experienced copy editors.

We hated editing Kelly's verbosity and endless ruminations on 9/11; former Governor Tom Kean; his pal, ex-New York Police Commish Bernie Kerik, and all the other crap the reporter began churning out after he was promoted to columnist in 1988.

It got to the point where our supervisors would literally have to order us to edit Kelly's column.

Some of us named the fourth stall in the men's room -- the copy desk was conveniently placed next to it -- the Columnist Mike Kelly Memorial Toilet Seat.

How appropriate. Kelly's shit copy found a parallel in the men's room.

Memorial column

Today, Kelly's column is on the front page, and it's a lame attempt to find humor in naming schools and other buildings after living public officials, some of whom go on to betray the public trust (A-1).

Until the old 150 River St. headquarters of The Record is torn down, we former copy editors will always have a really appropriate memorial to journalistic excess.

What could be more fitting then a toilet seat memorializing the columnist whose dated thumbnail photo radiates a shit-eating grin?

Desperate editor

Editor Martin Gottlieb must have really been desperate to put another boring Kelly column on Page 1 today.

Below that is Staff Writer Jim Norman's spin on a wild turkey that has made an A&P parking lot home and is being fed by customers (A-1).

But The Record continues to follow up on the 100-year-old Elmwood Park man who killed his 88-year-old wife with an ax before killing himself (A-1).

This story and earlier ones amount to the paper's only coverage of dementia and other forms of Alzheimer's disease.

Local news?

Mahwah Public Works Director Ed Sinclair has agreed not to sue the township, if officials pay his legal fees up to $35,000 after he was fired and reinstated in March (L-1).

Township officials also might consider paying for surgery to help the obese Sinclair lose weight, and lower their health-insurance premiums.

Today's Local-news section is dominated by crime news, court stories, a fire in an unoccupied house and other filler. 

The Record's weekly, Paterson Press, also keeps Bergen County readers abreast of the number of gunshot wounds in the Silk City, though there is no suggestion they are the fault of its sorry Police Department and do-nothing police director (L-3).

Chickening out

Don't bother rushing out to try five of the six "must-try chicken dishes" on the Better Living front today (BL-1).

The only one raised without harmful antibiotics is the whole rotisserie chicken from Le Bon Choix in Ridgewood.

But even with two sides, two sauces and cornbread, $28 for a whole chicken, raised at Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff, is a rip-off.

This cafe is near Whole Foods Market, where two antibiotic-free rotisserie chickens cost a total of about $15.

Elisa Ung, the restaurant reviewer who wrote the piece, could care less. The paper pays for all of the food she samples.

Borg family's interests trump civility at public meetings

Richard E. Salkin speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Salkin doesn't identify himself as the attorney for the city's Board of Education, which is allied with the Zisa family and the local Democratic Party that lost the 2013 municipal election. A frequent critic of the current council, he is usually quoted in The Record without that title, the same "anonymity" the paper accords to members of the losing council slate.

The five-member City Council with City Attorney Thomas P. Scrivo, left, and City Manager David R. Troast, front.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's progress on selling 19.7 acres near downtown Hackensack to a developer dominates The Record's Local news section today.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, wrote a story that ignores unanimous passage of an ordinance governing public comment.

The "Rules of Order" were introduced on Nov. 25 after critics of the council -- principally those who lost the 2013 municipal election -- launched one abrasive attack after another against officials for just about every hire and proposal they made, including a downtown performance space.

Many of the attacks were reported in The Record without identifying the critics as Zisa family allies and members of the local Democratic Party, which lost the 2013 municipal election to a slate of reformers led by John P. Labrosse Jr., who is now mayor.

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported what happened at a Nov. 10 council meeting The Record didn't cover:

"Another incident in which the First Amendment right was brought into question took place at the Nov. 10 council meeting, when resident [and Board of Education Attorney] Richard Salkin, who is a vocal critic of a number of the council members, in particular of councilwoman Rose Greenman, referred to her as a "sociopath."

"This allegation drove Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of the mayor -- to say she will not tolerate name calling.

"I'm not going to tolerate that," she said. "Address people with respect, that's all I ask. We are respecting you, respect us back."

Profit motive

The 150 River St.  parcel and adjacent property is the former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily newspaper, The Record, which prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving The Record's newsroom to a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodand Park.

A few years earlier, Borg moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008. 

Those two decisions seemed to set into motion a precipitous decline in the quality of editing and reporting at a newspaper still referred to as "The Bergen Record."

The 19.7 Hackensack acres are expected to fetch $20 million or more.

City study

On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a study to determine whether the NJMG parcel should be declared as an "area in need of redevelopment," a designation that could entitle any developer to tax breaks for up to 30 years, The Record reports (L-1).

The lead paragraph of the story says the property, two blocks east of Main St. in Hackensack, is 20 acres, but the second paragraph calls it a "19.7-acre site."

Labrosse, the mayor, said any development would have to include a walkway along the Hackensack River and a park where the USS Ling submarine is tied up on NJMG property.

Hackensack's Venice

A Walmart Super Center was rumored for the 19.7 acres a couple of years ago, and then gazillionaire Fred Daibes of Edgewater proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development, but that fell through.

Apartments wouldn't seem suitable for what former employees recall as a property prone to frequent flooding that claimed the cars of more than one staffer.

I can recall one storm that surrounded the 150 River St. building with so much water the managers pressed into service newspaper delivery trucks to pick up employees from higher ground a block away.

See a previous post:

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

CIA torture

It's hard to tell who is more upset by the CIA's "brutal interrogation program" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America (A-1).

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the harsh interrogation techniques a "stain on the nation's history."

But the media are playing up incidents that occurred more than a decade ago before reforms instituted by President Obama.

Could CNN and other media outlets really be upset they've been denied sensational YouTube videos of CIA operatives decapitating suspected terrorists?

On another slow-news day, calling all morons

On Friday morning, this bicyclist and a friend made better progress along narrow, antiquated Passaic Street in Hackensack and Maywood than did many drivers, who are slowed by traffic backing up at intersections without turn lanes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Burned-out reporter John Cichowski long ago ran out of ideas for his commuting column in The Record, and he's too lazy to cover mass transit.

So, in desperation, he sent e-mails to loyal readers, seeking comment on the plan to shift Route 17 exits from the left side of the Garden State Parkway to the right in a bid to end long backups and a high number of crashes.

Inevitably, as today's Page 1 Road Warrior column shows, the morons came out in droves with inane alternatives, including one man who wants a pothole near his home repaired (A-1). 

Most of Cichowski's readers are interested only in seeing their names in print, and they've been playing him like the fool he is for more than a decade.

Well, at least two of his readers are aware of a huge problem Cichowski has ignored: 

Declining state police enforcement of speeding and aggressive driving.

"The problem is ... a lack of police ticketing seeders," said Peter Peirano (A-6).

"The state should set up speed cameras," Steve Gigante of Hackensack said, to which I say, "Amen."

More wasted space

Virginia Rohan, another columnist who ran out of ideas, revives the finale of "The Sopranos" nearly seven years ago, and asks creator David Chase whether Tony Soprano died in the final episode (Better Living front).

Who the f--- cares? What a waste of space.

Playing catch-up

Since the George Washington Bridge scandal exploded in January, The Record has reluctantly reported that Governor Christie's first term was pretty much a disaster and that so far, his second term hasn't been any great shakes (A-1, A-3, A-4 and A-7).

On Page 1, Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley reports "New Jersey ... has lagged behind the nation in job creation."

On A-4, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, one of Christie's chief boosters, says, "New Jersey is struggling to create jobs, maintain its credit rating and balance its budget."

In the continuation of Morley's story, the reporter says, "While the nation has added on average 215,000 jobs a month this year, New Jersey has yet to gain jobs in 2014" (A-7).

What the Woodland Park daily doesn't attempt to explain -- in view of Christie's dismal record on the economy and other areas -- is how he managed to win a second term last November.

Or why nearly every editor, reporter and columnist at The Record has spent so much time promoting Christie's presidential ambitions.

A Honda CR-V seen on Cedar Lane in Teaneck on Friday carries a license plate I haven't seen since I left The Record in 2008. "BER" stands for Bergen Evening Record.

Big Hackensack news?

On the Local front today, there is big news for Hackensack residents, I guess.

Stephen A. Borg, the Silver Spoon publisher of The Record, says a deal to develop the 19.7 acres that served as the daily's home for decades is off, but another developer is waiting in the wings (L-1).

Apartment developer Fred Daibes is out and a mysterious national firm is in, a city spokesman said.

One of the few new things in the story is the $23.44 million value of the land along River Street in Hackensack, according to state taxation officials.

Of course, the story contains a major error.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag claims the property is "one block east of Main Street," when it is, in fact, two short blocks away from the city's depressed shopping district.

The parking lot of the old Record headquarters -- part of a notorious flood zone -- is being used for the cars of visitors, attorneys and jurors who were displaced by construction of a new building next to the Bergen County Courthouse.

Are Trenton reporter, columnist covering same event?

The NJ Transit transfer station in Secaucus is a pleasant place to wait for a train, but it loses points for not having one of those grand railroad clocks. Instead, small, hard-to-read digital time displays appear in the corners of four boards displaying train schedules and tracks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Readers who plowed through two versions of Governor Christie's first town meeting in a while may have thought they were at two different events.

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and Columnist Charles Stile of The Record were assigned to "a town-hall-style" meeting in Middletown, where Christie was blasted by residents who have so far been screwed out of Superstorm Sandy aid.

Sloppy editing

But Friday's news story and column clashed on important details and left out the best Christie quote -- on his seemingly slow weight loss since lap-band surgery a year ago (A-1 and A-6). 

Hayes' news stories on Christie read like columns -- where a reporter is encouraged to express a point of view -- and she has shown herself to be an unabashed admirer of the GOP bully.

Her Page 1 story on Friday begins like a column, and in the third paragraph, she asserts Christie was welcomed in Middletown "with a standing ovation and applause."

Stile, the columnist, sounds more like a reporter writing a news story, always careful to put criticism of Christie in someone else's mouth, beginning his report this way:

"Recast by scandal as a bully whose aides closed off part of the George Washington Bridge as a political revenge plot...." 

Recast by scandal, not by Stile (Friday's A-6).

Hearing problems

But later Stile completely contradicts fellow staffer Hayes, reporting:

"Christie was given a warm applause, but not the rousing ovations he normally receives."

"A warm applause"???

Earlier, Stile said, "The crowd lustily applauded" a Sea Bright man who confronted Christie about his use of private contractors to handle storm recovery, "not Christie."

Do we attribute this factual contradiction to The Record's famously inept editing -- on the assignment, news and copy desks?

If you are going to assign a reporter and columnist to the same event, make sure the same set of editors go over the results, if for no other reason than to get the two staffers to at least agree on basic facts.

Assignment problem?

And maybe Editor Marty Gottlieb should rethink his practice of sending columnists to cover news stories and spin endless pieces on Christie's image, presidential potential and politics, while ignoring the impact of his policies on state residents.

The GOP governor's corrosive politics reach into high places, including the Port Authority and NJ Transit, and hurt residents in myriad ways; Christie's politics shouldn't intrude into the Woodland Park newsroom.

And what's the explanation for Friday's news story and column omitting Christie's answer to why he doesn't seem to be losing that much weight:

"Rome wasn't unbuilt in a day," the governor answered, according to HBO satirist Bill Maher.

Christie comparing himself to Rome? That's rich.

Silver Spoon factor

You know multimillionaire Publisher Stephen A. Borg is running things on the Editorial  Page when the paper reacts to the state's record $40 billion debt by calling on legislators and Christie "to put away the credit card."

There is no mention in Friday's editorial on A-18 about a tax surcharge on millionaires -- which Christie has vetoed time and again -- or raising the state's low gasoline tax to pay for road repairs and mass transit.

The editorial notes Christie has borrowed "about $875 million" for transportation projects.

More snow jobs

A letter to the editor Friday praised Tenafly Mayor Peter Rustin for operating a plow and clearing a resident's driveway after last week's nor'easter.

Residents of Hackensack and many other North Jersey communities could have used the help of their mayors, but instead were left at the mercy of incompetent Departments of Public Works.

The editors, who have short attention spans, quickly ended their focus on uncleared sidewalks, crosswalks, bus stops, streets and highways -- which endanger drivers and pedestrians.

Today's paper carries a Page 1 story on uncleared fire hydrants.

Today's front page also is dominated by Ukrainians in North Jersey (A-1) -- hardly a local story, when compared to residents who pay high property taxes and get such shoddy service from their so-called public servants during snowstorms.

Wrong editor

On Friday's A-2, the correction of a wrong phone number published in the paper shows six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton has failed to drill a basic lesson into her copy editors:

If a story includes a phone number -- such as the Wednesday's elaborate Better Living piece on the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Bergen Community College -- the copy editor should call the number to make sure it is correct.

When I worked as a copy editor at The Record, I caught a wrong phone number in a restaurant review filed by a freelancer, and she was fired by the food editor.

Given the hundreds of errors that have appeared in The Record under Houlton's watch -- including in the famously flawed Road Warrior column -- she should be the one fired now.

Unappetizing

Dhoom in Secaucus, an Indian restaurant on that speedway called Route 3, is, well, doomed to failure.

I continue to wonder how Staff Writer Elisa Ung can give a "good" rating to a kitchen that prepared a $36 order of tandoori lamb chops and served them "mushy" and "almost unrecognizable as meat," or a $36 lobster dish that "emerged tough and stringy" (Friday's BL-14).

She also accomplishes nothing by telling readers the lamb chops are from Colorado, when she should be saying whether they were naturally raised.

And you'll forgive me for noting that photos of two dishes she liked, cooked spinach with cheese and lentil stew, look more like something you'd encounter in a public toilet, not at a pricey restaurant.