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.

Editors keep on selling home-rule savings

Image via Wikipedia

Readers want John Cichowski and Elisa Ung to follow this sign to Newark airport, get on a plane, relocate and never write another column for The Record of Woodland Park.

Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes are such big fans of the wasteful form of government known as home rule, any merger of services earns big headlines, large photos and upbeat copy -- with the tantalizing possibility that property taxes finally will go down for once.

Readers of The Record were treated to more of that B.S. this past Thursday, when most of Sykes' Local front was devoted to Montvale and two other towns beginning a joint municipal court, with a potential savings of $260,000 year, Staff Writer Matthew McGrath reported.

But Sykes, McGrath, and his assignment editor were pulling a fast one on readers -- taking pains to mention nothing about the millions of dollars in debt hanging over Montvale taxpayers since purchase of a commercial building for a new municipal complex, where the joint court is held. 

Here is the real story from Montvale resident Kurt F. Kron:

"The observation in Eye on The Record that the “newspaper” is filled with triviality is painfully accurate, and the inclusion of the Pascack Valley shared court in the triviality would be accurate, too, if it weren't for the fact that the story behind the placement of the shared court is a colossal insult to Montvale property taxpayers.

"The municipal building that houses the court was headquarters for the Wella cosmetics firm in its most recent prior life, after Wella moved from Englewood. Then, Wella was acquired by a German firm, and in fairly short order the building became the “Wella White Elephant.” Nobody wanted to buy it. But elected Montvale empire builders snapped it up, taking it off the tax roles and converting it to a use for which it was never intended, at great expense.

"The value of all Montvale debt at original issue was $13,560,000, “$7,885,000 attributable to the municipal complex,” according to an April 12, 2011 budget presentation, at which the council president thanked a former mayor for his foresight in buying the elephant so others could come to his court. A lot of the expense of converting the Wella building is attributable to construction of an escape-proof, bomb-proof, earthquake-proof holding pen for accused perps.

"At Dec. 31, 2010, $12,098,000 in Montvale debt was still outstanding. In the fiscal year beginning on July 1, Montvale debt service will be $1,855,175. Montvale taxpayers may not know the value of the Wella building, but they do know it's had an expensive face-lift."

Today's paper

The two main stories on the front page of the Woodland Park daily today are so far from being news as to be a laughable waste of space.  Is this the best Scandale can do for a Sunday paper?

The straightforward headlines sound idiotic, because they state what readers already know:

N.J. a hub for drug trade

Mothers who kill kids not so rare

In the story about mothers who kill, The Associated Press (not Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, as I said originally) takes a casual approach, making no attempt to tell readers why on Page 1.

In the drug story, Staff Writer Peter Sampson pored over records to document Newark airport as a major smuggling hub, but the headlines let him and readers down. 

The moral of the third A-1 story -- about how little corruption or waste was found at the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission -- is: If you mess with The Bull (Governor Christie), you get the horns.

Hook, line and stinker

The major news on the front of Local today is Road Warrior John Cichowski's 400th column on long lines at Motor Vehicle Commission offices.

Why is this such a big deal, if the average driver only has to go to the MVC every two to three years? 

From hunger

Six weeks after a food blog called Off The Broiler published a long post with photos of El Caney -- a tiny Cuban takeout place in Bergenfield -- Staff Writer Elisa Ung gushes about her "find" in her Sunday column (F-4).

Then, she quotes blog author Jason Perlow on how good El Caney's food is, without giving him any credit for finding the place. 

The bottom line is El Caney is more appropriate for the Marketplace feature, but Ung has long run out of ideas for her restaurant column and desperately cribs from others.