The Seattle Times hits Bottom.

Gerhard — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:50:43 +0000

A friend of mine handed me The Seattle Times and asked: “have you seen this?” I hadn’t but I did catch the tiny byline crediting a writer of The Wall Street Journal with the article. I had read part of the article in the Journal but the headline in the Times did not look familiar. Curious, I took the local paper home with the idea to compare the Times article to the original.

I am a Realist and a Realtor®

Before comparing the two articles, let me say that I’m a realist. Home prices are still coming down in Seattle land but they are not “crashing down” as they have in parts of Florida, Arizona and California. I’m a realist who makes his daily living in this business and I have every reason to keep in touch with reality.

The National Story and the Local Story

Hyperbole cuts Both Ways.

The reality includes naively optimistic and boring advertising by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on one side (I’m a member) and on the other side justifiably negative media reports about the country’s financial affairs in general and in particular the housing market. The problem is that some of these negative national reports are manipulated to give the impression that they are written and produced for the local market.

Accidental or Intentional Misrepresentation?

The question is if this impression is accidental or intentional. Judging by the edited “reprint” of the WSJ article in The Seattle Times (ST) I can only conclude that the ST did everything possible to give the impression that this story was about the Seattle real estate market.

The Wall Street Journal	The Seattle Times
The Future of Home Prices	Real-estate rebound? We haven’t hit bottom
	HOUSE PRICES : Values already have fallen dramatically, but don’t expect a bottoming-out before late next year, or even 2012. And the rut may last for years.

Selling Doom

The most obvious difference is in the headline. The WSJ headline describes the story’s content, while the local headline is meant to shock. Not enough, the ST editor added an intoductory paragraph lifted from the body of the article and reworded it so it would appear more negative and look as if it described the Seattle real estate market.

Stupidity or Blatant Manipulation?

Below the small-print “byline” that identifies the WSJ writer of the story, the first paragraph shows additonal editing to give the impression of this being a local story. The WSJ states “House prices have crashed more than 35% in some parts of the country.” (emphasis mine) which the ST editor changed to “…in some areas.” What areas are we talking about here? Some areas of Seattle, the eastside, King, Pierce or Snohomish county?

The Wall Street Journal

The Seattle Times

Over the past few years, Americans have had a brutal lesson in the risks of real estate. House prices have crashed more than 35% in some parts of the country, millions of people are losing their homes to foreclosure, and banks are failing.

By James R. Hagerty / The Wall Steet Journal

Over the past few years, Americans have had a brutal lesson in the risks of real estate. House prices have crashed more than 35 percent in some areas, millions of people are losing their homes to foreclosure and banks are failing.

Irresponsible Journalism

There’s nothing wrong with editing to make a story relevant to the local readership or shorten it to fit the available space. (The Seattle Times reprint left out several paragraphs from the original WSJ article.) However, when a local newspaper manipulates a thoughtful, even-handed story from a national paper so as to frighten the locals into buying the local newspaper, that’s simply irresponsible.

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