Biz media overlook potential bottoming of housing market

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes Monday that the business media have overlooked what may potentially be the bottom of the housing market currently causing the financial crisis.

Fuchs writes, “The business media can be overly negative. They can be overly positive, too. The consistency comes in the ‘overly’ part: The business media is always overreacting, floating their sad little way between cartoonish extremes.

“Worse, in their overreaction, they miss important things, such as initial possible signs of a turn — or, at least, a bottom — in a market. We saw a prime example of that over the weekend in coverage of the housing crisis.

“On Sunday, the Associated Press ran an overwhelmingly negative article about the intractability of the crisis, ignoring the first signs of stability we’ve seen in two years, which came to light on Friday. The headline: ‘Foreclosure crisis vexes government: Solving foreclosure problem proves to be a stubborn, complex challenge.’

“First, notice the typical business media bias — not a liberal or conservative bias but one toward the broader notion that government action determines everything when it comes to large economic issues.”

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