Shame on the IJ

Well, I was going to show some discretion and let this story in the IJ rest and not form the centerpiece of a blog post. But apparently, a passing comment in a different post was too terrible to bear and indicative of me not being sufficiently considerate and sympathetic to this Marinite's plight... Never mind the fact that for the last two+ years this blogger (and, of course, other bloggers) has feared and lamented this very outcome and duly condemned this housing bubble for this very predictable and unnecessary eventuality. But back then, everyone was so busy making money in RE and living it up with RE profits and fantasizing that 20%+ appreciation was "in the bag" for perpetuity that no one cared; we bubble bloggers were loons after all. Back then (even still) the Marin IJ was doing everything in its power to encourage the housing bubble and be the local real estate industry's propaganda whore. But how short is the typical Marinite's attention span...

So without further ado, I give you the Marin IJ's latest tear-jerker sorry sob story du jour.

Here is the summary of "the saga":

1. An individual (whom the IJ is quick to point out on numerous occasions is poor, old, legally-blind, suffers from multiple sclerosis, and female) lives in a terribly small house in Fairfax with kitchen curtains that read "bless this house" (if there is any doubt of this woman's sweetness, the IJ quickly dispels it).
2. The house needs a new roof and other repairs.
3. She is approached by an evil Southern Californian broker (Southern Californians are the sworn enemy of any self-respecting Northern Californian) who offers to refinance her into a loan (presumably with some equity extraction so she can fix her house -- blessed be the housing bubble's guaranteed riches).
   
4. We are told she refused mightily but in the end she yields to the seductive powers of her nemesis and she "reluctantly" signs the loan documents... officially taking her first step into victimhood.
5. Her original lender calls her up and persuades her to refinance with them for a better deal.
6. So she attempts to rescind the Southern Californian deal, believes it is kaput (and the reasons for why it is not are completely ignored and we are led to assume she is being victimized), and signs on the dotted line with her original lender.
   
7. But as it turns out, our poor, blind, sick female now ends up refinancing into not one but two subprime loans!
8. Not realizing this of course, she doesn't know that she needs to pay the Southern Californian loan. And so, after some time has passed, she receives a notice of default.
9. Not knowing who to pay (the evil Southern Californian lender or the angelic Northern Californian lender), she apparently doesn't pay either of them.
   
10. She will now likely lose her home of 30 years to foreclosure unless some heroic Marin attorney, her local knight in shining armor, can come to her rescue.

Never mind that bloggers were yelling and screaming (in a vacuum it seems) that sad stories such as these were all too likely. The real question is not so much why these bad-things-happening-to-good-people stories appear in papers but where in the hell was the IJ and other local news papers during the run-up in the housing bubble? They were out pimping for the local real estate industry of course; falling all over themselves cheering on this housing bubble (and all that it entailed) as high as it could possibly go when what they should have been doing was acting like independent journalists, examining where the housing madness would ultimately likely lead and prudently cautioning the poor, old, blind, men and women of the county. This piece by the IJ is nothing more than emotional button-pushing; the dark side of the "better buy now before you are priced out forever" fearmongering.

If accurate in its stated (and presumed) details, this is truly a sad tale... there can be no doubt of that; I hope it has a happy ending. If it's not true, then I am, unfortunately, certain that there are true stories around which rhyme with this one. But it was utterly predictable and a natural consequence of capitalistic greed run amok. Whether they suffered or not, everyone who participated in this mass greed is partly to blame. But instead of facing our shame, the IJ presents us with this red herring to distract our attention away from our own complicity. As the wave of foreclosures and forced sellings hits Marin and elsewhere, will the wail of shock and dismay yield to ready excuses or will we admit to our own place in this sad melodrama that didn't have to be and that should never be allowed to repeat?

Update 9-12-07: Thanks to a reader and frequent contributor for the graphic for this post. I'm not sure if I am supposed to be Dudley and the IJ Snidely or the Marin attorney is Dudley and the lenders are Snidely. No matter. It works both ways. But there can be no doubt who plays the part of Nell (although that's not Nell in the pic, oh well). And if I may quote the contributor:

I was entertained [by] the way you skewered the melodrama to the IJ story. All it needs is a "Snidely Whiplash" character, hence that cartoon. After hiding behind a façade of a friendly "community newspaper", while serving local realtors, the[y] deserve all the scorn we can muster. Their pitiful little story makes me nauseous.

I couldn't agree more.