News Media Squaliforme Cheerleader of the Week

Once again this Court must step in (yes, even during the holiday week) and expose another news operation that just doesn't get it.

Submitted to the Court from a source in another part of the great state of Texas, an article by none other than the "Real Estate Editor" of the Dallas Morning News, Steve Brown.

In an article from the November 19th edition, "Foreclosure listings increase," Mr. Brown takes the same, trite, ill-informed and misleading squaliforme-endorsed line on the issue. Without lifting a finger to dial a phone or email a consumer advocate or even explore the 'net about the squaliformes stories in other sources, Mr. Brown quotes only George Roddy, the head of the echeneidae* Foreclosure Listing Service:

"Mr. Roddy said he blames the continued high foreclosure rates on more corporate
layoffs in North Texas and looser loan standards."

"The downsizing of jobs and lowering of salaries continues," he said. "Some people are hanging on, but each month that goes by, more of them can't go on any longer.

"The other problem is the screwball loans they are making," Mr. Roddy said. "They are loaning money to anybody that is breathing."

Wrong, Mr. Roddy, and wrong Mr. Brown for repeating the squaliforme myth about jobs and the economy being behind the foreclosure plague.

And Mr. Roddy is being very disingenous. They don't make loans to anybody that is breathing. They make loans to people because they know they can be taken advantage of by their fellow squaliformes in the loan servicing industry. And when the victim runs out of resources to fight them, another loan will eventually be generated.

This Court is not unaware of the Dallas Morning News' unclean hands in these issues. This Court's source also cited other pieces from writers Pamela Yip and Danielle DiMartino who are unwilling to pull the curtain back and let people see the squaliformes for what they really are.

Given the revenue from real estate and financial services advertising, it is no wonder they take a soft approach in these stories.

But this Court and this Honorable Judge have no such softness for promoters who willingly seek to keep the public misinformed.

The Dallas Morning News gets the News Media Squaliforme Cheerleader of the Week Award.

The Honorable Judge Roy Bean.

[(Note from the Clerk of the Court: His Honor wishes to advise locals to not show up on Court property or the environs thereabout with a copy of the Dallas Morning News.)]

*See October archives for an introduction to echeneidae.