3 Comments

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  jambon at 03:06 PM JST - 11th April

  Nationwide, about 2.76 million, or 6%, of home loans were delinquent and about 920,000, or 2%, were in foreclosure at the end of last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

  94% of home loans were not delinquent and of that 98% were not in foreclosure. But so what?

  When thousands of borrowers started defaulting on mortgages, the networks attacked lenders, ignored the responsibilities of consumers for their own debts and made it appear that the American dream itself was coming to an end.
  

   “We call it the American nightmare,” homeowner Amy Wood told ABC “World News with Charles Gibson” on March 26. That phrase summed up more than nine months of network coverage of debt.
  
   That story about rising foreclosures in Concord, N.C., attacked lenders and virtually ignored the idea that borrowers might have some personal responsibility for their own mistakes. It was the first part of a series ABC entitled “The Home Wreckers.”
  
   Anchor Charles Gibson blamed lenders’ “creative financing” and reporter Steve Osunsami claimed homeowners were “talked into purchasing” homes with “little or no money down” and low interest rates.
  
   “Their American dream is over,” Charlotte Observer reporter Binyamin Appelbaum told ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson.” That was a common theme for the network, which blamed lenders four times as often as borrowers (20 to 5) for debt and ignored the issue of personal responsibility in two-thirds of its stories.
  

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  Sarge at 05:02 PM JST - 11th April

  "well-meaning homeowners"

  Are there unscrupulous homeowners?

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  jambon at 06:40 PM JST - 11th April

  Are there unscrupulous homeowners?

  Many of the people who took the loans were buying and flipping the real estate. When things went sour some said, "Go ahead and foreclose. I made mine."

  So we can sympathize with losers who lived beyond their means:

  ABC has been erratic with its stories involving consumer debt. According to a Business & Media Institute study, "Debt: Who’$ Responsible?” ABC News was subpar when it came to the issue of personal responsibility. A segment from March 2006 downplayed the role of the consumer in taking on financial obligations.

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