Reading a piece in the Phoenix paper this morning made me realize how cautious we have to be when reading or listening to any news items. It’s easy for any writer to slant news for a particular agenda. “Mortgage foreclosures up ten times in the Phoenix market.” Very bad you say? “Mortgage foreclosures much lower in Phoenix than the national average.” That sounds really good. What’s the truth?
Both may be accurate but each certainly tells a different story. The first is misleading because a couple of years ago the housing market was so hot that there were virtually no foreclosures in the Phoenix market. Consequently, if you have 10 foreclosures, and then have 100 a couple of years later, the increase is a factor of ten but the actual number is still low and could represent a low total when compared to the rest of the country.
What did we learn from this? If we read something, we have to carefully read the whole story and sort out the truth. Second, if we are in business we need to manage the news to make sure we tell a story with the best possible “spin.”
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