The Hackensack University Medical Center, apparently unhappy about a story about its governing board, has pulled advertising from The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record and banned the newspaper from hospital grounds.
The hospital requested that its ads on NorthJersey.com be removed immediately, asked to cancel its online advertising contract and canceled all ads from several community newspapers owned by The Record‘s publisher, North Jersey Media Group.
It also told the paper to remove its vending boxes, to stop delivering to the hospital gift shop and canceled delivery of a magazine published by North Jersey Media Group.
The actions followed publication of a story on Sunday that “detailed how various board members help to underwrite Bergen County’s Democratic leadership and how several trustees do business with the hospital — a practice prohibited at some North Jersey hospitals.”
Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of the board of North Jersey Media Group, expressed regret that The Record will not be available to the public at the hospital.
“This retaliation is a real shame and is censorship,” Borg said.
He also noted that no one at the hospital has told the newspaper that any of their stories have been inaccurate. A hospital spokeswoman declined to connect the medical center’s actions to Sunday’s story.
“We constantly evaluate and change our media plan to be certain we are effectively positioning our message and that it is cost-effective,” spokeswoman Nancy Radwin said Thursday.
Len Bruzzese, executive director of the Association of Health Care Journalists, questioned the hospital’s actions.
“If sunshine and openness are the best disinfectants for business and government dealings, then you have to question what a hospital has in mind when it flips off the lights and closes the windows,” Bruzzese said.
Update
The hospital has apologized for its actions and requested that the newspaper resume delivery. Read more …
