Mounting errors cause John Borg to spin in his grave

One of the attractive properties available on Hackensack's sleepy Main Street, at the corner of Bridge Street, five years after the Borg publishing family abandoned the city. The Record's retail reporter, meanwhile, is probably preparing another story on big-box stores or malls.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even the Page 1 story declaring the original owner of the Bergen Evening Record a "Bergen County Legend" contains a major error.

The Record's glib front-page headline -- "Indian chief to Mafia don" -- is part fact, part fiction (A-1).

Sure. It got me and other readers to turn the page and plow through the list selected by the county Historical Society.

But actor James Gandolfini only portrayed a "Mafia don."

The "Indian chief" is Oratam, leader of the Hackansacky Indian Tribe (A-8), but the story doesn't mention the chief's profile is prominently featured on Hackensack's official seal.

The official Hackensack seal.

John Borg

Today's story reports that John Borg, originally a stockbroker, "became the owner of the Bergen Evening Record, which 'exposed political scandal, despite kidnap and death threats,' the Historical Society said" (A-8).

Borg was the great-grandfather of Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

One has to wonder whether Stephen Borg will be remembered for cutting costs so relentlessly that he sacrificed accurate journalism.

The befuddled John Cichowski, who has written the Road Warrior column for nearly 11 years, has made more errors than the entire newsroom staff in Woodland Park, and few of them have been corrected.

Since a major downsizing ordered by Stephen Borg in 2008, Cichowski's column has rarely been edited or fact-checked -- despite Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is paid six figures to ensure just that.

Today's paper

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes has become so cozy with Governor Christie she doesn't even tell readers the age of Bridget, "his younger daughter" (A-7).

The Local staff knocked itself out getting all the details of a dramatic rescue by three state troopers who pulled a truck driver out of neck-high water in Overpeck Creek on Tuesday (L-1).

But there is not a word on how driver Lawrence Scherf, 66, crashed and burned his tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike in Ridgefield.

Was he speeding or did he fall asleep, as have so many tractor-trailer drivers recently?

I chuckled at one detail: "The troopers dropped their leather utility belts and jumped into water up to their necks" (L-3).

Utility belts? Surely, the reporter meant "gun belts."

Pardo and Rieck

The Associated Press writer who handled the obituary of announcer Don Pardo didn't think readers would be interested in how he lived to 96 (L-6).

And what moronic layout editor at The Record decided to bury Staff Writer Jay Levin's light-hearted treatment of cancer victim Jeffrey Rieck lampooning relatives in his own obituary (L-6)?

A famous Hoboken deli didn't last long in this Main Street storefront.

High rents on Main Street, low chances of success.

'No-raises recovery'

The Record's Business editors weren't about to send out reporters to interview workers on what Bloomberg News calls "the no-raises recovery" (L-7).

"Five years of economic expansion have done almost nothing to boost paychecks for typical American workers, while the rich have gotten richer."

That's certainly the case at The Record and North Jersey Media Group, owned by the wealthy Borg family.

Cory Nieves

On the Better Living front, the upbeat story about a 10-year-old CEO from Englewood leaves a couple of questions unanswered (BL-1).

If the fashion-conscious Cory Nieves has been selling hot cocoa, lemonade and cookies since 2009 to help his mom buy a car, why is she working for him and still taking the bus?

And Cory might want to rethink selling cookies, if he just looked around and saw all the kids his age struggling with obesity, a subject The Record has avoided for decades.