JONATHAN CHAIT OCTOBER 15, 2010
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The late Wall Street Journal editorial editor and Medal of Freedom winner Robert Bartley had a saying to describe the ethos of his page: "The ideology finds the news." Of course, the ideology is also capable of fleeing from the news:
"WE'RE NOT AWARE of a single case so far of a substantive error," The Journal's editorial said. "Out of tens of thousands of potentially affected borrowers, we're still waiting for the first victim claiming that he was current on his mortgage when the bank seized the home." The fund manager Barry Ritholtz, who writes the blog The Big Picture, and Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith, whose chronicle of the foreclosure jumble has been encyclopedic, furious and convincing, would disagree. They've linked to stories in papers like the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and The South Florida Sun Sentinel about banks mistakenly taking over homes that hadn't been foreclosed on. Not only was Fort Lauderdale's Jason Grodensky not late on the payments on the house that Bank of American foreclosed on, but he didn't even have a mortgage.
"Thanks for the query," The Journal's editorial page editor said, responding to an interview request, "but I think I'll let the editorial speak for itself."
6 comments
"Journalistic Integrity At The WSJ Edit Page" Next from TNR, a special report on kosher cheeseburgers! Really, what did you expect? This is the WSJ editorial page, where they never, ever let troublesome facts interfere with their ideology.
- K_Wilson
October 15, 2010 at 5:04pm
kosher cheeseburgers?! LOL!
- GSpinks
October 15, 2010 at 5:37pm
Given that the processes aren't being followed, there are bound to be cases where the facts are wrong. The processes by which you foreclose are designed, amongst other things, to make sure that the claimant actually has a valid lien. But, within that certainty, the larger truth is that most of the defaults leading to forclosure are real, and resetting the foreclosure process, important though it is, will not change the fact that people who took on debt they cannot now afford are going to lose their homes. Anyone who thinks that fixing the process is going to save a lot of home "owners," is probably engaged in wishful thinking - it'll save the small fraction that are being wrongly foreclosed, and a few more where the banks decide it's not worth the effort given the underlying fundamentals that may make an adjustment a better deal, but that will not change the big picture.
- IowaBeauty
October 15, 2010 at 6:05pm
Yes, the Wall Street Journal editorial page editor will let the ideology, er, the editorial, speak for itself.
- liberal reformer
October 15, 2010 at 6:42pm
Well, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT???? The WSJ is now a NewsCorp product, and so, like ALL NewsCorp products, it exists for one reason and one reason only: To advance an ideology. Facts ALWAYS take the back seat to ideological purity at NewsCorp. "Why should tonight be different from all other nights?"
- dsimon64
October 15, 2010 at 7:19pm
An inane article, accompanied by a number of inane postings (apart from IowaBeauty). Is the WSJ editorial page consistently conservative? Of course. Is the New York Times' editorial page just as consistently liberal? Obviously! Is Murdock a sweetie? I haven't seen many claims to that effect. How about Sulzberger? He may have a slightly larger fan group, most of whose members reside in Manhattan. Are both publishers' editorial boards selective in the facts upon which they predicate their opinions. You bet. Now what about the facts concerning the latest fiasco. This country is overwhelmed by the collapse of the housing bubble. Over a few years, millions of people got mortgages they could not have received if truth were told. Millions of others previously got mortgages they were entitled to receive and took risks with their home equity that hindsight has proven misguided. Many more millions of others are current on their mortgage payments, or have paid the mortgage off, but are watching the value or liquidity in their homes disappear. Three things seem clear to me: 1) the great recession will never truly end until the "market" is able to "clear" the overhang of properties that are subject to unpaid debt, 2) the process of clearance will be as lovely to look at as the making of sausage, and 3) if actual debt turns out to have no consequence, private enterprise will become a rumor in America.
- lsernoff
October 16, 2010 at 8:30pm