Republicans have claimed that, however right-slanted the media has become, it is liberal and biased against them. In this way, they can deflect as the rare instances, when they are confronted with the truth, as liberal media attacks. Most of the time media are very helpful to Republicans, such as Newt’s John King moment. Here Wolf Blitzer let both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich off the hook.
American homes have lost $7 trillion in value over the last five years and four million homeowners are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure, but thus far, the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidates have offered little in the way of solutions for the housing crisis that is holding back the economic recovery. Few states have been hit harder than Florida, where prices have dropped 45 percent since 2006, half of recently-sold homes are in default, and 23 percent of of homes are delinquent or in foreclosure.
That made last night’s debate, which was held in Jacksonville, the appropriate place to ask the remaining Republican candidates how they would address the crisis. Voters, in fact, were waiting to hear the candidates’ answers.
Unfortunately, the debate’s moderator, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, bungled his opportunity, turning to a submitted question that couldn’t have possibly led to substantive answers from the candidates. And then, after Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney gave answers littered with falsehoods and turned the discussion toward each others’ investment portfolios, Blitzer failed to press them for actual plans to deal with housing…
…Watch it:
Blitzer’s original question focused on what the candidates would do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage firms that have been targets of Republican ire since the crisis began. But it was private industry, not Fannie and Freddie, that sparked the crisis. More than 84 percent of the subprime loans in 2006 were issued by private lenders, including 83 percent of the loans that went to low- and moderate-income borrowers… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Sadly, the main stream television hosts, with a few rare exceptions, are so biased that they cover up the truth about Republicans to America, and put the burden on us to spread it.
17 Responses to “Blitzer Shows Bias”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
First of all, as a mortgage lender in Canada for 30 years, from what I know of the US system, the lack of effective and meaningful regulation across the industry is what put the housing market in crisis. When I heard that you could get a mortgage for more than the value of the property, I was aghast! When I found out that there were no generally accepted mortgage payment to income and total debt payments to income guidelines, again I was aghast! In Canada, 95% is the maximum lending value for a mortgage, and normally, 32% of your gross income is allowed for your mortgage payment (principal and interest) plus property taxes, and 40% of your gross income is allowed for all your debt payments including the mortgage. There are exceptions to these rules but they cover specific scenarios. The maximum lending value used to be 90% and I remember when it change to 95%, some of us ‘old timers’ saw trouble on the horizon.
When you have massive job loss, you are going to have people losing their homes unfortunately. As this continues, the number of properties on the sales market increases so that supply exceeds demand. When that happens with no turn around in sight, houses lose their value. But unfortunately, it isn’t just the one’s up for sale, it is everything losing value because appraised values, put simply, are relative to the sales market. And if homes are selling for less, then the value of a home not for sale is going to fall too.
If I’m not mistaken, were not Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae directed to buy some of the mortgage paper from the Banks? If I am correct, then the Republican/Teabaggers have only their bankster buddies to thank for putting Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae in the position they are in now. Republican/Teabaggers have to look at the truth of the situation — there are multiple reasons for the housing/mortgage crisis, but the biggest is the greed and conniving of the banksters and their accomplices, the Republican/Teabaggers.
As far as Wolf Blitzer, he is a paid wolf in sheep’s clothing and doesn’t know diddley from squat! And Romney lying . . . Mr Flip-flop? He doesn’t know what the truth is and anything will be a bias depending on the day of the week.
Lynn,
It used to be that way in the states as well until some genius thought up no doc loans – you didn’t even have to show proof of income! This all started in the early Bush year when he wanted to put everyone in a home. Comes to find out that the max home ownership is somewhere around 60-65%. Anything higher that that proves to be a catatrophe. Then the banks put those no doc loans in with good ones and rated them AAA and when the foreclosures started, the whole thing fell apart. Fannie and Freddie were part of the problem, but mostly it was the over zealous banks.
You are both spot-on here. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were indeed part of the problem, but it did not start until Republicans changed the rules under which they operated as part of Bush’s Home Ownership Initiative. Today Republicans are blaming Democrats for all the risky loans to poor people, but that’s pure projection. The notion that we could put poor people into no down, no doc ninja loans was strictly Republican.
CNN is disgraceful. Their attempts to turn themselves into a FOX “News” Clone led them to introduce America to Gruppenführer Beck. And then, to ice that cake, they put racist moron Erick Erickscum on their payroll.
The mainstream media serves the Rushpubliscum Party the way that Pravda served the Politburo.
To a large extent I agree, but MSNBC still has a few good ones.
I always liked Wolf Blitzer. I watched his show. I thought he would make a good mediator, but this performance of allowing the candidates to go off on each other is the wolf out of control.
Pat, he certainly was out of control. He always struck me as a skillful journalist, but as one who was also quite disingenuous.
Thanks, Nameless. Excellent links!
Blitzer probably has stock in Freddie and Fanny too. That’s probably why he didn’t press for an answer.
Remember him hiding under the table during Operation Desert Storm?
Now that you mention it, I do.
Financing mortgages for people who could not really afford that house is a big part of the spiral , job loss is another primary reason—
I recall when we bought our first home . in 1963 , with an low down payment , sweat equity , FHA government loan– it was difficult– we had to prove our ability to pay the mortgage , we had a very through credit check and needed statements from my husbands employer that he was a valued employee and had a secure job , he had to have been employed for a period of several years , in the same job–There were a lot of hoops to go through to prove ourselves credit worthy. BTW.. back then the wife’s income , if any , did not count ,
Over the years , many developers and banks – etc- became preoccupied , it seems, with selling mortgages instead of homes , and loosened credit requirements til they were almost non existent –‘ Want a house ? Here – sign this ” –as job market tightened and jobs were lost , these mortgages seemed to be the first to go under– as job losses escalated– conventional mortgages became troubled—and housing values began a rapid downward spiral- so even mortgages that were sound to start with became impossible to keep up—
I think Lynn describes exactly what has happened ;
Phyllis you are right about Lynn. In 1969 I put down $10,000 on a $20,000 home. It still took over a week for the financing to go through.
Not only is Blitzer terminally boring, but both he and that pathetic John King are closet-Republicans. CNN has become the Conservative News Network, and is best avoided.
Jack I agree.
Bat guano, elephant dung, horse puckey, bullshit, dog crap, wolf blitzer . . .. Just sayin’.
Phil, I’m afraid you have just insulted Bat guano, elephant dung, horse puckey, bullshit, and dog crap.