Not-so-lovable Hackensack

Image by greenkayak73 via Flickr

Did desperate Hackensack officials -- angling for news coverage, any coverage -- charter a boat and dangle fish to lure a group of lovable dolphins up the Hackensack River and onto the front page of The Record of Woodland Park?

Oh, they're so cute and lovable. No. Not Hackensack officials or residents of one of the most diverse communities in Bergen County. They're not so lovable, North Jersey Media Group decided many months ago -- too many blacks and Hispanics. So the Borg family abandoned the city physically and editorially to save money as readership declined under the weak leadership of Editor Frank "The Fish Stinks from the Head Down" Scandale.

But Hackensack is back on Page 1, thanks to eight to 15 wrong-way dolphins and an apparent scoop by environmental reporter Scott Fallon. He'd much prefer to write about dolphins than a state clean-energy bureaucracy that frustrates homeowners, who have to wait up to two years to get solar panels installed. (Generic photo shows how dolphins strand while feeding.)

Did head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Laughs A Lot" Sykes -- who has pulled the Hackensack reporter off her beat for months at a time -- push this story for A-1, rather than Local, because she saw kindred spirits in these 300-pound animals? This is the first time in years Hackensack has been on Page 1.

There's a bigger story on the front -- because of cuts announced by Governor Christie, NJ Transit users face higher fares and less service. Of course, local bus riders in North Jersey have endured those "cuts" for years -- forced to use a fleet of shabby vehicles so much older than the buses mostly white commuters ride into Manhattan.

But Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski and transportation reporters Tom Davis and Karen Rouse are lazy. And Sykes and the other assignment editors don't think the blacks and Hispanics who ride local buses are as cute and lovable as dolphins, so this local bus story has never appeared in The Record.

The Local news section today continues to ignore real education, development or municipal news from Hackensack and Teaneck, not to mention other Bergen County towns. Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano has her first municipal story since Feb. 6, but it's about two buildings the school district sold to the city, not the segregated elementary and middle schools.

In Business, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais reports that a new Walmart in North Bergen -- the first in North Jersey with a full grocery store -- "seems to be an instant hit," judging from the parking lot on Monday, but fails to point out it was a holiday when many people had the day off and likely ended up there.

He also doesn't report whether the store sells anything but conventionally raised meat and poultry, which are pumped full of antibiotics or growth hormones that are harmful to humans.