Mainstream Media Spins Real Estate Recovery

Greg Hunter 

Just about everywhere you turned yesterday the mainstream media (MSM) was talking up the good news in latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index report.  For example, the online version of USA Today had a headline that read “Spring buying boosts home prices, market still sluggish.”  The first line of the story said, “Prices rose 0.9% in July over June, marking the fourth-consecutive month of increases for the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index released Tuesday.”   

But buried in the same story was this little piece of information, “When adjusted for seasonal factors, home prices were essentially flat in July over June, S&P’s data show.  “The housing market is still bottoming and has not turned around,” says David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P.  July home prices were down 4.1% year over year, according to S&P’s index of 20 leading cities. Minneapolis and Phoenix led the declines, with prices in those areas down about 9% year-over-year.”  (Click here for the complete USA Today article.) 

“Prices were essentially flat” and “July home prices were down 4.1% year over year.”  Shouldn’t the headline have read something like “Home Prices Decline year over year– Flat for July”?   Why does the MSM try to spin good news out of rotten situation?  Why do they think it is their duty to make a story look better than reality?  I was in the MSM for most of my career, and I know what its duty should be.  Give it to the viewer or reader straight.  There is not a single inaccuracy in the USA Today story, but the spin and omissions are stupefying.  Would you like an example of what I am talking about?  Sure you do.