Where sloppy reporting is an epidemic

A Ferrari 430 Scuderia at a 2008 auto show. 

Two full days after a motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an out-of-control Ferrari sports car, The Record's clueless assignment editors finally tell readers who the victim was.

Today's story on the Local front reports that Stephen L. Lenge, 56, who owned a popular Cliffside Park record store, was on his way to work as a stagehand at a Meadowlands music festival.

Readers of Cliffview Pilot.com learned about Lenge and were able to see his photo first.

Cliffview Pilot also has mug shots of the two morons charged in Lenge's death.

Another sloppy story

The initial story -- on Page 1 of The Record's Sunday edition --  was poorly reported, written and organized, and carried a headline that assumed readers are as familiar with a "Dream Car Sprint" as they are with the Super Bowl or World Series.

Readers don't learn two Ferraris were involved until they turn to the continuation page, and the story never raises the possibility the irresponsible drivers of the 200-mph super cars might have been speeding or racing. 

The Sunday story is inaccurate, as well, reporting Lenge, a father of two, was 57. It also carried a photo with a caption that identified his motorcycle engine as being the engine from a Ferrari 430.

The Ferrari 430 was produced from 2004 to 2009, and sold for more than $200,000 in the United States. But its powerful V-8 engine is in the rear, not the front of the car. 

Story corrects errors

Today's follow-up -- as do so many second-day stories produced by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' lazy assignment desk -- serves to correct the initial, inaccurate account.

But there is yet another stupid error in the follow-up, reporting Lenge's "internment" (detention) instead of his "interment" (burial).

The news copy editor who read that story must have been asleep or, maybe, he was playing footsies with his supervisor, Editor Liz Houlton. 

COO wades in

Today, Rob Ferretti, chief operating officer of Gotham Dream Cars of Englewood, is quoted as saying that neither of the drivers who lost control of the Ferraris is among the "professional drivers who participate in the sprint."

So, Ferretti entrusted his inexperience younger brother and another glorified go-fer to drive the powerful super cars, and now a respected community member is dead and his employees face death-by-auto charges.

Is that the kind of judgment we should expect from the executive of a company that charges people $100 or more to drive these exotic cars, but only under supervision? 

Enzo Ferrari, founder of the sports-car company, is turning over in his grave. 

Bimbo outsmarts security

Today's front page is a hoot.

The lead story -- on an illegal immigrant who hid behind an assumed identity for 20 years -- never explains how a man who answers to the name "Bimbo" got the best of the state and federal governments' security apparatuses (A-1).

By all accounts, Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole of Nigeria has an unblemished record as a security supervisor at Newark airport, and should keep his job. 

Old-fashioned legwork

An A-8 editorial on the blight of foreclosed houses reminds readers what a great job Staff Writer Kathy Lynn did on the story, which began on the Sunday front.

I'm sure I wasn't the only reader impressed by the large number of people Lynn interviewed to produce her story -- it's what newspapers call "legwork" -- in contrast to how few sources burned-out Columnist Mike Kelly relied on for his inaccurate account about the state of Hackensack (A-1 on Sunday).

Enough already

Monday's front page and today's Local front both carry stories on the over-reported primary contest between two Democrats in the 9th Congressional District.

But when are Sykes and Editor Marty Gottlieb going to tell readers in Hackensack, Fair Lawn and a large part of Teaneck, among other towns, what's going on in the 5th Congressional District they were thrown into by a redistricting panel? 

Wegmans, Smegmans

On the Business front (L-7), consumer reporter Kevin DeMarrais says Wegmans Food Markets Inc. may finally open a Bergen County store in the wealthy town of Montvale (on the New York State border).

For most Bergen residents, especially those living in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, it might as well be on another planet.