Critic: Let's call Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac news a "seizure"

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs wishes that the business media would call the federal government takeover of lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a “seizure.”

Fuchs writes, “Funny, isn’t it, how a turn of the phrase or slip of the tongue can have such a subliminal effect on our understanding of a business event. Take this weekend’s invitation sent by the government to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that they all join forces.

“OK, so it wasn’t quite an invitation.

“Then again — especially considering that shareholders will probably be left with nothing — it wasn’t quite a takeover, either.

“It was more of a seizure.

“I guess one man’s takeover is another man’s seizure. Though leave it to the business media, those contradictory little devils, to sometimes call it both in the same report. Actually, in the same headline.”