MEDIA WATCH

There is good news on the home sales front, but you would've had to read to virtually the end of reporter Carol Hazard's story to find it. In the Aug. 10 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch (RTD) there were 47 paragraphs on the subject, but what people really want to know starts in paragraph 42.

That good news? Real estate research maven Cecil Sears says the bottom of the market for the Richmond area likely occurred on May 28. Sears made that announcement during a forum sponsored by the Home Building Association of Richmond earlier this month.

Apparently Hazard and her editors weren't very impressed that a recovery may be under way. Their headline read: "Banks, builders tighten belts." Most of Hazard's story focused on the financial aspect, which is, quite frankly, old news. The specific examples may be interesting, but the tight money story has been told before. We think most readers already know that it's more difficult to qualify for a mortgage and as a consequence, builders and developers are facing more scrutiny with their lenders.

Early in their journalism education future reporters are taught that the word news is derived from the word "new," which causes us to wonder why the RTD would lead with old news.

No one in the homebuilding or real estate industries would deny the economic mess we're in because of the national housing crisis. But local representatives repeatedly emphasize that the Richmond market isn't Nevada, California or Florida and indicate that the news media is making the problem deeper and longer than it needs to be. The RTD hasn't reported that. Richmond's economy is diversifi ed and has loads of government employees, so it is far more stable than those with vacant second homes looking for buyers.

At the forum, panel members referred to the news coverage or showed headlines from the RTD, Washington Post and New York Times. Some in the room were doing a slow burn. One developer has even urged an advertising boycott of the RTD.

Accurate reporting is a sensitive subject, and the RTD, like many daily newspapers, seems to relegate criticism to letters to the editor and not within its news stories. This newspaper too has received criticism of our reporting on some stories but not necessarily about real estate. As long as the letter writer is identified, we print the letter. We can't say if all the letters critical of the RTD are printed.

But in this case, we think the RTD missed the real story and emphasized the old news.