October 28, 2013

The Star-Ledger

Al Demola, a frequent subject of The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger’s consumer-protection column “Bamboozled,” called the paper with an unusual offer, Karin Price Mueller writes:

“He said he owned domains, or web addresses, in the names of some Star-Ledger editors. He requested we ask the bosses if they wanted to buy the domain names from him.” He offered to send his proposal to Mueller’s home address, “which he then named.”

Indeed, an anonymous buyer using a private domain registrar purchased the web names for the paper’s editor and publisher, records show. The sites were redirected to a pornographic web site.

On the same day, Demola also called the Ledger editor at home – twice, according to Associate Editor Tom Curran.

The editor offered Demola the opportunity to dispute past Bamboozled stories. Demola offered the editor his domain name and encouraged him not to run a new story, Curran said.

The Star-Ledger “is contemplating litigation to resolve the matter,” Mueller writes.


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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
Andrew Beaujon

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