Guest blogger: ‘Please cover the other side’

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Blogger’s note: When I saw those words in the subject line in my inbox -- ‘Please cover the other side’ -- I assumed it was another complaint that this blog is too negative, too focused on the real estate meltdown. I was wrong. This is an e-mail from reader ‘msprompt.’

‘I am BEGGING you to please do a story on the other side of this mess. If I read one more Dickensian story that leads with an anecdote about some family who is about to lose their house because they have no money, I’m going to lose it.

‘Please do a piece on people who tried to be fiscally responsible during the run-up; who didn’t buy a house they couldn’t afford simply because someone in a mortgage suit said they could; who worked to amass 20 percent down and present themselves with a rational DTI ratio; these people are the real ‘victims’ in this mess: People who want to buy a house but are prevented from doing so because price discovery is being artificially delayed. People who have money in the bank and are now losing interest because of the continual rate drops by the Fed. People who will be among those taxpayers likely left holding the bag at the end of this mess. People who didn’t enter into a contract because they believed that a contract actually means something, that it is binding. (Ha!) (Full disclosure: I’m describing myself and my husband.)

‘On all the housing blogs I read, there is public outcry aimed at the Mainstream Media. No one can understand why the MSM is continually going for the easy story about poor Mr. and Mrs. Fat and their 11 children living in an 8.500-square-foot house -- on which they put zero money down -- who are on the brink of getting the boot. There are other issues here that NEED to get some play. They are dramatic. They feature pathos and conflict and all the necessary elements of news that will attract readers. What about the gaming of the system? The fraud perpetrated against those who played by the rules? The Fed is in cahoots with the banks. No shocker there. But as one of the many middle classers who is getting royally screwed in all this and has been robbed of any voice in favor of a story that evokes more pathos, I have to ask: Where in the hell is the Fourth Estate? Who is protecting the public interest? Why is the MSM not nailing the gov’t on this?

‘What’s happening is an outrage and if a stiff like me can see it, why can’t the media?’

Thanks, msprompt.

Comments? Thoughts? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo credit: AP