23 May 2008
Deceiving Headlines: Read Deeper
It’s amazing how much the media now uses scare tactics and attention getting headlines to get you to listen to or read their stories. I know this has been going on for a long time, but it still gets on my nerves. First and foremost, I’m an optimist, so I do look for and normally find the good news in a news story even if the source has attempted to surpress or downplay this information. I’ll give you one simple example, since it relates to real estate in imy home territory, Kansas City.
Some of you on the coasts are probably feeling the pain of the downturn in the real estate market right now, or maybe you’re a lucky one who is taking advantage of it. In Kansas City and some other midwest areas, it’s a lot more stable. In fact, in the frist quarter of 2008, Kansas home prices went up 2.7 percent and Missouri prices were up 1.7 percent. But take a look at the following article in the LOCAL KC NEWSPAPER.
http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/632143.html
Did you notice anything strange about the headline? “Home-price index posts a record low.” I live and invest in Kansas City, I’m reading the Kansas City paper, I expect to see a headline saying “KC Area home-price index rises despite nationwide record low.” Instead I get a small blurb in the eigth paragraph about the rise.
Update: Now that I look at the heading of the article, I realize that this is not actually from a local author, but from the AP in Washington. I still won’t retract my statments, because the premise of my argument holds true in so many other examples. Also, I read the printed copy of our paper (The Kansas City Star) and it has the article printed as well. How about a local author writing a feel good piece to encourage our residents instead of another downer. Most people probably read the title and skip the story saying, “Oh great, another story about the horibble market. When will it end?” Read a little deeper and you may find that it was never that bad in the first place, but “they” don’t want you to know that for some reason.
I’d love to see posted examples of the same kind of slanting of the news in the comments section, especially related to investing. I’m sure you can find a million related to real estate or stock investing.
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