Happy New Year to Ike and his thread...
The silver lining in the recent sad news from Pakistan is that now Pakistan is in the world's spotlight...for better or worse. I hope the journalist's give a fair shake to the situation, but after recent experience here I have my doubts. But that's where the internet comes in to play and lets us hear all points of view and to fact check the journalists.
Here is an example of poor journalism, written right here in the US and was carried by Reuters around the world:
The big, bold headline in the morning paper read:
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"Tent city in suburbs is cost of U.S. home crisis"
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reuters.com
In this amazing example of shock journalism, here are a few lowlights:
- description of "the once-booming suburbia of Southern California"
as "a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath," ...
- the headline itself is an absolute fabrication, bolstered even
further by the second paragraph..."The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in
July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several
children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by
the U.S. housing crisis..."
Ah, but farther down in the article the author does cough up one very
interesting fact, even though it is couched in more hyperbole -
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"While no current residents claim to be victims of foreclosure, all
agree that tent city is a symptom of the wider economic downturn..."
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Let me rephrase that, of the 200+ residents of this tent city, the
author could not find even a single person who had been foreclosed
on!! Not to mention that finding 200 homeless in the midst of a 20
million population center (that during the winter months traditionally
attracts homeless 'snowbirds' from across the northern US) is, however
tragic for those folks, not a reason to start quoting Steinbeck.
- She further states:
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"Nationally, foreclosures are at an all-time high. Filings are up
nearly 100 percent from a year ago according to the data firm
RealtyTrac..."
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The PR from Realtytrac says "U.S. home foreclosures rose 68 percent in
November from a year earlier...down 10 percent from October's total..."
bloomberg.com
How can anything be at "an all-time high" when it is down 10% from the
previous period??
And since when does 68% = nearly 100%?? It appears math is not this
author's strong suit, as later the article states "there are
entire blocks of homes in Cleveland where 60 or 70 percent of houses
are boarded up."
I never realized that 6 or 7 out of 10 equals an 'entirety', but if
you live in a world where 68% = 100% then I guess it makes sense.
And this:
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"As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and
across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the
form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease."
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We already showed how the author could not find a single homeless
person who had been foreclosed on above. The source for the claim of a
higher crime rate "across the nation"?? Why, a single comment from a
homeowner about her observations of her own neighborhood in San
Bernardino...
And foreclosures leading to disease?:
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"All those empty swimming pools in California's Inland Empire have
become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can transmit the
sometimes deadly West Nile virus, Riverside County officials say".
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These officials apparently have no names, and neither is there any
mention of this 'health risk' on the Health Dept website. However,
there are some interesting facts listed on the site which cast further
doubt on her claims. Listed in an accounting of the yearly numbers of
cases of West Nile virus found by the health department...Back in the
golden boom years of the real estate bubble - 2004 / 2005, the number
of cases of West Nile were 99 and 94, respectively. Through October of
this year, there have been all of 14 reported, and there were none
reported in 2006 - the year the realty market prices started to turn down.
rivcoph.org
Ah, but never let a few facts get in the way of selling papers (and fear).
Jerry |
