Along the same vein as prior articles on responsible reporting in the media, there seems to be more awareness towards media outlets touting gloom and doom figures. The people are beginning to publicly question the backings of all these new reports.

The latest of these articles comes out of the editorial/opinion column in the Outlook, a local paper in Oregon. Published on April 8, 2009, local realtor Jon Hull voices his opinion in his letter, “Responsible reporting vs. doom and gloom.” In the letter, Hull describes how journalism has “helped to stymie consumer confidence across our nation,” and helped “to cause fear and alarm in our community without including any of the positive aspects, which offer balanced reporting.”

Hull states that one of the main causes of doom and gloom reporting comes directly from the companies reporting the information. In this case the “source of statistics is a foreclosure revenue-generated based Web site out of California,” Realty Trac. Hull states that according to RealtyTrac, Oregon is ranked 9th worst in foreclosures while various other companies state it is has some of the lowest foreclosure rates in the country.

Hull continues by stating, “Numbers can be made to look however you want, (isn’t that how we got in this mess) or can be pulled from sources, which in this case apparently support the doom and gloom article presented.”

As foreclosure Research has reported in the past… There are always two sides to every (foreclosure) story.