Often when a reporter uses phrases like "declined to answer questions", "had no comment for this article", and "did not respond to requests for an interview", it's usually not good for the person the story is about. 

At least it did not bode well for those who refused to answer questions posed by The Record's Jeff Pillets in a series of articles he wrote about EnCap that has recently earned him accolades from his peers.  The EnCap series was also "selected as a finalist in the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting," (The Record, 8/22/08).

So it seems like a double standard when North Jersey Media Group Vice-President/Editor Frank Scandale declined to confirm or deny any investigation of Pillets by the New Jersey State Police for allegedly swiping some documents from the Department of Environmental Protection.

Instead Scandale punted PolitickerNJ.com's inquires to the Attorney General Office's who also declined to comment. 

But of course.  That's standard operating procedure for law enforcement folks.  It's not for a newspaper organization.

Congratulations to The Record’s Jeff Pillets, John Brennan and Tim Nostrand, whose stories on the Encap development plan at the Meadowlands has been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.   The nomination was "for their probe of how plans to build a luxury community atop old landfills became entangled in questionable state loans and other allegations of favoritism."

The Star-Ledger won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for its coverage of the resignation of New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey. That puts some pressure on The New York Times to win a Pulitzer for their rather oustanding coverage of the events that led to the end of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's political career.