Trump counselor hoodwinks columnist into splashing even more lies onto Page 1

From cartoonist J.D. Crowe of the Alabama Media Group. You can see more of his work here.

From cartoonist Taylor Jones. You can find more of his work on the Cagle.com site.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Some reporters at The Record of Woodland Park will do anything to score an "exclusive" interview or to "scoop" the competition.

And these same reporters have already forgotten the lesson of the 2016 presidential campaign -- that even when the news media pushed back, all of the lies told by GOP nominee Donald J. Trump and his band of dirty tricksters ruled the day and stole the election.

Now, Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record is being made a fool of by none other than Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, the serial liar who managed the billionaire's campaign.

Conway, you may remember, denied President Trump ever lied. Those were just "alternative facts," she claimed, just as Trump himself called his lies "truthful hyperbole."

Today, Conway and the back of Kelly's graying head appear in a big photo on Page 1 during what is described as an interview in her Alpine home.

The veteran columnist asked her about President Trump's tweeted allegations that Barack Obama himself wiretapped Trump Tower before the election.

Instead of addressing those charges or providing any evidence the tweets were based on fact, Conway spun new lies until her lingerie smoldered.

I won't perpetuate them here, but you can read Kelly's column on NorthJersey.com.

The story was picked up by TheHill.com, which doesn't name the columnist, but refers to the Gannett-owned newspaper as "the Bergen County Record in New Jersey."

Attorney Frank P. Lucianna, with gray hair and not wearing a hat, marching in the 2014 Memorial Day Parade in Englewood when he was 91 years old.

Page turner

The only real page turner on 1A today is Staff Writer Jay Levin's profile of Frank P. Lucianna, the 94-year-old criminal defense lawyer who practices full time in Hackensack, just blocks from the Bergen County Courthouse. 

Lucianna was the first attorney in New Jersey to use the battered woman's defense at a murder trial, "a gambit that won [an] acquittal for a Fair Lawn housewife" who killed "her abusive husband," Levin reports. 

This is a rare instance when Levin -- the local obituary writer -- profiles a prominent North Jersey resident before he dies.