Buying & Selling: Spin The Bubble

Victim of a media conspiracy?

I was theorizing today that some people are just looking to be offended and pick a fight, and won't let pesky things like reality get in their way (See "John Kerry," "George Bush," and "Iraq joke"), and sure enough, I stumbled across a statement today from the, shall I say, somewhat right-of-center Business & Media Institute regarding the housing bubble:

Had Mason turned to NAR for an analysis of the market, he’d have found a far more optimistic viewpoint than he presented to viewers...“The present level of home sales is relatively high in historic terms, and we can expect generally minor movements around this level,” NAR chief economist David Lereah said in a November 1 press release...That’s just one of numerous examples the Business & Media Institute has documented of the media’s five-year run of housing bubble bias.

If I were to quote or link to every housing-related article I've read where The Lereah is the ONLY analyst or expert quoted, without any sort of competing or opposing view, there'd be no more space on this blog. Or as Paper Money put it when he was quoted as the opposing force to the Lereah:

It’s certainly refreshing and even an important milestone to see the traditional media report the hyper-optimistic guidance of one of the real estate industry’s most notable bulls juxtaposed a healthy does of reasonable skepticism and alternative analysis.

Seriously. I've only been at this for a year, and I was astonished at how uncritically major media outlets reported housing news. In case you forgot, there's even a blog devoted to Lereah's depredations:

Mr. Lereah tells half truths and manipulates facts and figures. He cannot be trusted as he is a paid shill.

This goes to show that every side thinks they're the one not getting the press, but in this case, we're right and they aren't.

Posted at November 2, 2006 05:41 PM

digg this story

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblog.housing.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/270

Victim of a media conspiracy? I was theorizing today that some people are just looking to be offended and pick a fight, and won't let pesky things like reality get in their way (See "John Kerry," "George Bush," and "Iraq joke"), and sure enough, I stumbled across a statement today from the, shall I say, somewhat right-of-center Business & Media Institute regarding the housing bubble: Had Mason turned to NAR for an analysis of the market, he’d have found a far more optimistic viewpoint than he presented to viewers...“The present level of home sales is relatively high in historic terms, and we can expect generally minor movements around this level,” NAR chief economist David Lereah said in a November 1 press release...That’s just one of numerous examples the Business & Media Institute has documented of the media’s five-year run of housing bubble bias. If I were to quote or link to every housing-related article I've read where The Lereah is the ONLY analyst or expert quoted, without any sort of competing or opposing view, there'd be no more space on this blog. Or as Paper Money put it when he was quoted as the opposing force to the Lereah: It’s certainly refreshing and even an important milestone to see the traditional media report the hyper-optimistic guidance of one of the real estate industry’s most notable bulls juxtaposed a healthy does of reasonable skepticism and alternative analysis. Seriously. I've only been at this for a year, and I was astonished at how uncritically major media outlets reported housing news. In case you forgot, there's even a blog devoted to Lereah's depredations: Mr. Lereah tells half truths and manipulates facts and figures. He cannot be trusted as he is a paid shill. This goes to show that every side thinks they're the one not getting the press, but in this case, we're right and they aren't.