How the Housing Report Changed From Initial E-Mail to Spun Story

Here's what a CNN e-mail I received said when the news was first released:


Here's how the headline at the home page turned out mid-morning:


Note how the bad news came first, with emphasis.

Here's how the article appeared early in the afternoon:


Note how, given time, Old Media decided that the single-family news was more important than the news relating to housing starts in general. This is the first time in following these news reports for a couple of years that I've seen apartments broken out from single-family homes. Somebody had to look pretty hard for that.

The word "surprise," which described housing starts in the e-mail, does not appear in the actual article.

It's clear that the good news that came out in the original e-mail this morning was too much to handle. I guess that wouldn't be consistent with the "Mortgage Meltdown" theme that CNN is clearly wedded to.

Cross-posted at

Tom Blumer
Tom Blumer
Tom Blumer is a contributing editor for NewsBusters.