Who Will Ombud The Ombudsman?

Clark Hoyt, ombudsman of the NY Times, goes into the tank for Edmund Andrews, author of "Busted", who was busted by Megan McArdle.

To recap - Edmund Andrews, Times financial reporter, is promoting a new book claiming to detail his personal journey through the dark underside of easy mortgages and financial distress.

The NY Times gave him space in the NY Times magazine to talk up his story and his book.  But missing from the story is any mention of the fact that his wife has filed for personal bankruptcy not once, but twice.  For a story about personal finances, that is a staggering omission, leading to some absurd phoniness in the Andrews tale.

However, Clark Hoyt addresses it this way:

Andrews is an excellent reporter who explains complex issues clearly. There are plenty of them to cover without assigning him to those that could directly affect whether he keeps his own house. He is too close to that story.

He can’t be too cautious. On Thursday, he came under attack from a blogger for The Atlantic for not mentioning in his book that his wife had twice filed for bankruptcy — the second time while they were married, though Andrews said it involved an old loan from a family member. He said he had wanted to spare his wife any more embarrassment. The blogger said the omission undercut Andrews’s story, but I think it was clear that he and his wife could not manage their finances, bankruptcies or no. Still, he should have revealed the second one, if only to head off the criticism.

Brad DeLong and Felix Salmon note that "the blogger" has a name, a lofty title (Business and Economics Editor of The Atlantic),  and a well-deserved reputation for diligence and accuracy.

Let me join the bashing with a frontal assault - there is no way the Andrews story can be read as an accurate, honest depiction of his experience.  This, for example, is from the NY Times magazine (my emphasis):

The only problem was money. Having separated from my wife of 21 years, who had physical custody of our sons, I was handing over $4,000 a month in alimony and child-support payments. That left me with take-home pay of $2,777, barely enough to make ends meet in a one-bedroom rental apartment. Patty [Andrews' new wife] had yet to even look for a job. At any other time in history, the idea of someone like me borrowing more than $400,000 would have seemed insane.

But this was unlike any other time in history. My real estate agent gave me the number of Bob Andrews, a loan officer at American Home Mortgage Corporation. Bob wasn’t related to me, and I had never heard of his company. “Bob can be very helpful,” my agent explained. “He specializes in unusual situations.”

Bob returned my call right away. “How big a mortgage do you think you’ll need?” he asked.

“My situation is a little complicated,” I warned. I told him about my child support and alimony payments and said I was banking on Patty to earn enough money to keep us afloat. Bob cut me off. “I specialize in challenges,” he said confidently.

...

Bob called back the next morning. “Your credit scores are almost perfect,” he said happily. “Based on your income, you can qualify for a mortgage of about $500,000.”

What about my alimony and child-support obligations? No need to mention them. What would happen when they saw the automatic withholdings in my paycheck? No need to show them. If I wanted to buy a house, Bob figured, it was my job to decide whether I could afford it. His job was to make it happen.

“I am here to enable dreams,” he explained to me long afterward. Bob’s view was that if I’d been unemployed for seven years and didn’t have a dime to my name but I wanted a house, he wouldn’t question my prudence. “Who am I to tell you that you shouldn’t do what you want to do? I am here to sell money and to help you do what you want to do. At the end of the day, it’s your signature on the mortgage — not mine.”

You had to admire this muscular logic. My lenders weren’t assuming that I was an angel. They were betting that a default would be more painful to me than to them. If I wanted to take a risk, for whatever reason, they were not going to second-guess me. What mattered more than anything, Bob explained, was a person’s credit record. History seemed to show that the most important predictor of whether people defaulted on their mortgages was their “FICO” score (named after the Fair Isaac Corporation, which developed the main rating system). If you always paid your debts on time before, the theory went, you would probably keep paying on time in the future.

So, Andrews told the mortgage broker that his wife's income would be important, but for some reason she was not included on the mortgage application, which (as best I can infer) was only in Andrew's name.  Why was she not part of the mortgage application?  Well, she had future prospects but no current income, so that would be a possible reason to omit her.  But surely there is a possibility that her previous bankruptcy would have been a huge disqualifying red flag.

Whether the mortgage broker knew of her previous bankruptcy is left as a mystery - it's hard to believe her credit score was perfect, so I infer that when Andrews claims to have been told that "Your credit scores are almost perfect" it means that he had more than one nearly perfect score.  Is that written to be intentionally deceptive?  Did the Times editors deliberately let that pass, or were they also in the dark as to the real story?  Who knows?  It's certainly not clear from the Hoyt defense or Andrews' response to McArdle that the Times editors were apprised of the situation.

So, is this a story of greedy mortgage brokers or nearly fraudulent mortgage applications?  I am pretty sure the latter tale would not be publishable, which would hardly suit Mr. Andrews current financial plan, which is to hit it rich with a best-seller, however phony.

Is this Mr. Hoyt's idea of full and fair reporting?  Knowing about the wife's prior bankruptcy makes reading this article even more challenging than doing a crossword puzzle, as the reader tries to figure out what Andrews is dancing around and what really went on.

I am sympathetic to the notion that in the current environment the NY Times wants to help out any of their reporters trying to make a buck on the side.  But I wonder at how much of their reputation and credibility they are prepared to invest in his venture.

Comments

[centralcal]

Good grief, Tom, you are right - we need an ombudsman for the ombudsman.

Greedy brokers and greedy borrowers, neither playing by the rules, is what Mr. Andrew's tale really seems to be about.

[bad]

It's the story of two people stupid enough to believe that they deserved a half million dollar house on take home pay of less than $2800 a month....and the bank stupid enough to subsidize their stupidity.

It's a story of stupidity.

[narciso]

Much like Jon Stewart's looking out for the folks savaging of Cramer, never referenced
the tie he had to Larry Liebowitz of the NYSE

[Charlie (Colorado)]

He would have more than one credit score — each of the credit reporting firms computes it, and since their data isn't the same, the scores are different.

[bad]

I forgot to mention the stupidity of the NYT. But that goes without saying..

[Chris]

The story as written fits the narrative. Disclosure would, err, complicate, that. Carry on.

[peter]

Steve Sailer has been all over this. I don't have his blog link on this computer, but sTeve specializes in blogging about racial themes; IQ, etc. He is controversial, but not extreme or racist.

[pagar]

Bad, a word on the stupidity of anyone buying the book, would be in order, IMO.

[verner]

Clark Hoyt should be fired. This is the second time in a week that he has pulled this sort of dishonest brokering.

Not that we should be surprised. The blue tailed skink that lives in a flower pot on my back porch has more integrity than the entire NYT staff put together.

[Benno Cheeves]

I was so upset at Hoyt's whitewash that I wrote him this email:

Dear Mr. Hoyt,

I don't think you really understand the dimensions of the Ed Andrews "Busted" story.

True, one dimension is whether Andrews will skew his daily news coverage of the finance system to benefit himself. But the link there would be tenuous no matter how ethical or unethical Andrews was. Not many people are going to adjust their policy or business decisions on the basis of his coverage -- especially since he has shown himself to be sorely lacking in judgment both personally and professionally. I am sure he would do what he had to do to avoid self-serving coverage of, say, the Fed's latest numbers or TARP's processing of emergency assistance to banks.

But the larger issues go unexamined by you.

Here are the larger issues:

(1) The Times's promotion of its own reporters in the Magazine and Book Review, which is rampant. To those of us out in the boonies, it seems like the ultimate insiders' club. It stinks. I'm sick of it, and so should you too. The Times is a great newspaper. It's not a fraternity. Set honest standards for dealing with your own flock.

(2) The Times's go-ahead to Andrews to write this book. Sure, it's a free country. The Times should encourage its writers to broaden themselves and take on exciting challenges. But this was, from the get-go, destined to be a sob story. As such, it would avoid the really uncomfortable issues, like the manipulation of the bankruptcy process, the lack of full disclosure on both bankruptcy and bank loan documents, etc. Unles Andrews was prepared to say the whole story -- which he clearly was not -- his book was bound to be false on its face. I wish Andrews no ill will. But his book was completely dishonest. That reflects badly on the Times. My personal affection for Ed is immaterial. This is a business, a profession. You should treat it that way. If Ed wants to write a book that is almost guaranteed to wreck his credibility, he has he right to do so. But you damage your own "brand" (that's how you all think these days, right?) when you embrace this shoddy and dishonest work.

(3) The Magazine's non-editing job. Just because the Magazine runs an excerpt, it doesnl't men that the editor should avoid serious interrogation of the author. Books don't really set much of a budget or priority for editing. A paper like the Times lives and dies off how thorough and accurate its pieces are. This Magazine piece was dishonest in so many ways. Contrary to Andrews's own proteststions, Patty's bankrupties had everything to do with the story. They establish a pattern of blatant irresponsibility long before the couple plunged into housing never-never land. She filed the second time for BK when married to him, when this housing fiasco was under way. He could not have gotten the loan, even in these crazy times, if he had been forthright about her debts. Her BK shields him from their joint liability. Also, notice that his name alone is on the mortgage -- meaning that he can file for BK, meaning this power could can have three in a span of 12 or 13 years. That's abuse. Andrews also mischaracterized the situation surrounding his affair with Patty; at the time, both he and she were married. He was not a guy reeling from a recent divorce. That's his business, I know. But he chose to make his life public. A big part of his story is this sympathetic Everyman persona. Lying and slanting your story doesn't win any credibility. And the Magazine editor was clearly at out to lunch on this one.

(4) The credibility gap. Andrews has shown himself to be so foolish, reckless, impulsive, prevaricating, that I don't see how any of his sources can take him seriously. "Hi, this is Ed Andrews from the Times. I'm working on a piece about Bank X's restructuring..." I am amazed by his own account of confessing his idiocy to Greenspan. Can Alan Greenspan -- or Ben Bernanke or Tim Geithner or anyone -- take this guy seriously? Maybe, but I don't see it. I, a loyal reader of the Times for 30 years, certainly do not.

I weep -- really -- at the shambles that the Times finds itself in these days. It's still a great paper, but it seems more interested in protecting errant behavior than setting and following unimpeachable standards.

[Jane]

You have a blue tailed skink?

I want one.

[verner]

And let's just add that a credit score is nothing more than a measure of an applicant's past history of managing debt. It is ultimately the debtors responsibility to judge what he can or can not pay. For all the banker knew, Andrews was in line to inherit vast sums of money from an elderly great aunt etc. Besides, as a FINANCIAL REPORTER for the NYT, I would suspect the bankers thought he was smart enough not to bite off more than he could chew.

I found a pic of Andrews and "the love of his life" Patty. She looks to be a head taller than he is, younger,big boobs and red hair. My guess, if this book doesn't pan out, the grifter will move on to the next mark.

[verner]

Jane, if I could ship it Fed ex, I'd send you a big one. I have them all over the place.

I love them.(Pic LUN) They eat bugs. Very useful little creatures, unlike the editorial staff and reporters of the NYT.

[centralcal]

verner: I have never heard of a skink, much less a blue tailed one. Thought you were making it up! Joke's on me!

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Good cat toys too.

[centralcal]

uh, verner - where do you live? Just hoping I don't have be wary when I am out gardening. I jump whenever I come across even a baby toad.

[verner]

Yes Charlie, unfortunately true. I've seen my dogs with little blue tails sticking out of their mouths as well.

Such is life in the Animal Kingdom.

Central, I'm in middle Tennessee. And don't worry, they don't bite etc. Very harmless and cute.

[sbw]

Verner, we ARE life in the Animal Kingdom

... and Obama doesn't appreciate that the American achievement has been to raise even the least of its citizens a fraction above that level; The non-principled wretch would destroy that achievement for unexamined clichés and his ego.

[Pofarmer]

From the NY daily news

LUN

GOP led by toy soldiers - Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh - insulting heroes like Powell

Monday, May 25th 2009, 4:00 AM
Colin Powell Cooper/AP

This was at 166th St. and Boston Road in the Bronx Sunday morning, in front of the amazing old building that was still called Morris High School when Gen. Colin Powell graduated from there more than 50 years ago and began a life of service to his country.

Ya know who else has lived a life of Public Service?

Dick Cheney.

I'm about sick of this lionizing of Powell.

I wish just one major news publication would expose his treachery in the Scooter Libby affair, but that stories already written.

[clarice]

When I first read that story I did not know about the bankruptcies but i still considered what was revealed hardly an advertisement for the author's financial prowess and I surely wept no tears for him or his wife.

Stupid, indeed.

[Jack is Back!]

Verner,

You live in Florida? I do and we have millions of skinks. You can't ride your bike without hundreds of them scampering out of the bushes on the path and then back into the bushes. In our house we have a dozen geckos or more that keep us mosquito and moth free. Most of our skinks are Broadheads and Ground skinks. There are some Five-Lined but not as many as the others.

[Ignatz]

--Just hoping I don't have be wary when I am out gardening.--

Lot's of harmless skinks out here in CA, cc, although I don't see as many as I used to.

But there are several hundred highly venemous blue tailed, yellow backed skunks in the Sacramento area. Many of us are hoping this remnant population is endangered and on its way to extinction.

[centralcal]

LOL, Ignatz!

[Phil]

The reference to multiple credit scores is most likely about the three different credit reporting agencies...

[Jane]

Oh my goodness Verner I had no idea that was a real thing, What a riot.

[happyfeet]

Clark Hoyt doesn't have any integrity but I can't figure out if it's just that he's a big liar or if he just follows orders. Probably both cause they would have known the job required someone lacking integrity and figured Clark was their boy.

[clarice]

Seriously, why can't the MSM come up with better sob stories? Don't they know any real ones or aren't there any?

The WaPo's story on the fading weeks of the Bush Administration was of a family who ould afford organic food only for the baby and had to eat regular food. *No sob from me for these dumbbells*

Then there was the Dem party's family that needed health care assistance cause they spent their money on private schools and fixing up an upscale urban residence.

And now this.

Either everyone's doing well or reporters ought to get out more.

[DrJ]

But there are several hundred highly venemous blue tailed, yellow backed sk[i]nks in the Sacramento area.

Really? I've never (knowingly!) seen one. The garden variety ones we have are a great favorite of our cats.

[Joe Ranft]

You can call my response, "Who's nit-picking the nit-pickers?"

What's your point? That Andrews wrote an article about his foolishness, but he left out some of his foolishness? This is what writing is all about. It's about making choices. If he had included the details you want included, the story would not have changed a bit.

And as far as covering the economy, how is this any different from a poor athlete working as a sportswriter? Writing about and doing are different.

Finally, I don't think he included his wife on the mortgage application because they were not married at the time, a fact I picked up from reading the article.

[Fat Man]

"Clark Hoyt should be fired. This is the second time in a week that he has pulled this sort of dishonest brokering."

Look, he is only doing his job, protecting the NYTimes staffers by pretending to investigate their all too frequent lapses into Narrative and pure fantasy.

[happyfeet]

Of course the story would have changed. He's an idiot with money but he's appropriating the Narrative what says he's a victim. That's wrong. And now everyone knows his wife is a big loser anyway.

[Ignatz]

DrJ,

That was not a typo. The skunks in question are diurnal and can be found on Capitol Ave in Sacramento most weekdays lying in wait for unsuspecting taxpayers and their young.

[happyfeet]

I bet she has really big breasts is a lot the deal why he married her.

[Koblog]

The only line of Edmund Andrews' Woe is Me: A Liberal Idiot's Story worth believing is My answer to any money squeeze was to stop spending.

But you can bet that Andrews and his twice-bankrupt spend-happy high school squeeze voted for Barack "What, Me Spend?" Obama and has no problem with multi-trillion dollar deficits doing to America exactly what they did to him.

[DrJ]

Ignatz,

*blush* Sometimes I should not play it so straight!

We have diurnal skunks too, and most are rabid. Close relatives of the ones you mentioned?

[Jane]

You can always tell when Tom gets an Instalaunch.

Hi new people.

[Ignatz]

--What's your point? That Andrews wrote an article about his foolishness, but he left out some of his foolishness? This is what writing is all about. It's about making choices. If he had included the details you want included, the story would not have changed a bit.--

There's really no point in refuting somebody this imbecilic. My standard response to such dingbats from now on, and I encourage any JOMer to join me is a simple;
WAFI.

[Soylent Red]

I used to keep a skink around in in the kitchen area to keep bugs out. Worked pretty well.

But when I moved, everything had to go, including the kitchen skink.

[Rick Ballard]

"Close relatives of the ones you mentioned?"

You're dealing with Mephitis mephitis around your neighborhood. The Sacramento Democraticus mephitis is of the same family but doesn't smell nearly as sweet. They do share the 'most are rapid' distinction wrt taxing and spending.

[Gerry Daly]

Hoyt is either the worst 'public advocate' or the best, depending on if you are part of the public or are a liberal member of the New York Times editorial staff.

He is nothing but an apologist, and a brazen one at that.

[Ignatz]

--We have diurnal skunks too, and most are rabid. Close relatives of the ones you mentioned?--

No, DrJ. Completely seperate order.
Rabid skunks are quite harmless and even tempered by comparison and are mammalian.

The Sacramento skunk, consumeus yerdinero, by contrast is a close relative of the beef tapeworm. Here's a picture of the speaker of the California assembly being held aloft by one of her staff.

[RM3 Frisker FTN]

Would be interested to see Edmund Andrews' resume: what schools did he attend? what was his major? did he ever work outside of journalism?

[clarice]

Soylent, Have I failed to tell you the penalty for using puns?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Not only is fame fleeting, apparently, so is infamy. Back in March 2008 Megan was one of the 'stupidest women alive'
LUN in case Typepad is hungry today:

'Megan McArdle gets scores of 10.0, 10.0, 10.0, 9.8, and 5.6 from the Slovakian judge as she dives off the platform onto her belly in her play for the "Stupidest Woman Alive" crown.'

Now, in the DeLong post Tom links to, we're told:

'When something appears attached to Megan McArdle, I know that she is smart, has worked hard, and is trying her best to get the story right.'

I think Andrew Sullivan may be alive and living in Brad DeLong's blog.

[PaulL]

That's a fine letter, Benno Cheeves,

[Jor]

What's sad is it was actually a pretty good story -- I initially thought blame was distributed 50/50 in the article -- and it was clear that they were living beyond their means. At the same time, it seemed like the mortgage broker enabled their foolishness, because presumably he was betting someone else's money.

Oh well. I agree with McArdle, that the story would still be publishable if he mentions the bankruptcies, but it would completely ruin the balance of the story. Sometimes fiction works better.

[Fresh Air]

Clark Hoyt doesn't have any integrity but I can't figure out if it's just that he's a big liar or if he just follows orders.

Happy--

It's neither. I graduated from J-school in 1987. Most of the people I rubbed elbows with there were liberal, but not in a doctrinaire way. The students wanted to be "big story" types, but I don't think crusading for leftwing causes was really their mantra.

I think what happened is they landed at newspapers rife with old Sixties liberals who went in to journalism exactly for that reason. Another crop came in after Watergate. They created a culture within the newsrooms around the country that is profoundly anti-intellectual and seriously devoid of fairness and decency.

Most new journalists just take to it like water. They don't really have to be told; they are just imitating what the "successful" reporters do. Thankfully, they are being fired at a rate of over 20,000 per year. With luck, some of them will be able to get jobs in government. I don't know what the rest of them will do.

[Rick Ballard]

FA,

What's sad is that there are plenty of "big stories". They will never see light because they would focus on the incredible corruption within the Blue Hells. There is no way in hell that a committed propagandist, elevated through the Gramscian process, would ever assign, let alone publish honest reporting that reflected badly on the party or its creatures.

Say - did you see where Sarah Palin's second cousin's stepsister's boyfriend was fined heavily for unpaid parking tickets?

[Fen]

Oh wow. I thought NYTs had passed away a few years back. Who knew.

[centralcal]

heh - Fen. It isn't quite dead yet, still languishing though, kept barely alive by one of those Mexican "doctors" who specialize in alternative treatments.

Probably doesn't have much longer to live, poor dear.

[Jeremy Wa]

Not even fish mongers want to be seen using the NYTimes any longer.

[DrJ]

cc,

I understand they are on the Carlos Slim-fast diet. And they are slimming right down!

[clarice]

What gives a man who supported with great fanfatre the candidate of the Democrats the right to speak for the Republican party?

Isn't the Daily News almost out of business, too?

[centralcal]

Soylent, just ignore that gal in the golden thong wielding the pistolas - I got a great chuckle out of your pun! I got one from Dr. J too - although he wasn't meaning to be humorous :)

[centralcal]

Exactly, Dr. J! Carlos will be their benefactor and medicine man all the way to their newsprint grave, journalism-god willing.

Hey - is there a "god" that rules journalists? Or maybe a Saint? hhhmmmm.

[DrJ]

is there a "god" that rules journalists?

Woodward and Bernstein? Or were they just "prophets" who ruined the field?

[Fresh Air]

Woodward and Bernstein? Or were they just "prophets" who ruined the field?

Journalism is dead. What W&B did was bring forward the mouse which was then described to all who saw it as The Golden Calf from the Temple of Mencken. The pitiful ink-blotched wretches like Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass are still trying to chisel a little piece off of the sculpture with hysterical "investigative" reporting. Even the non-fraudulent kind is rife with innumeracy, carelessness, bias and tendentious writing.

The truth is W&B simply allowed themselves to be used by a bureaucrat with a grudge. That this score-settling ultimately led to the resignation of a president greatly confuses the role they played and their value to society.

Which is less than nothing.

[wuzzagrunt]

"At the end of the day, it’s your signature on the mortgage — not mine.”

In my world, grownups don't need to be told this. And if they eff up, they don't try to spread the blame around.

[Ron Rust]

I may have missed it (I scanned the story pretty quickly) but didn't they get any financial support from Patty's ex? Surely there was child support. And why wouldn't the ex pay for airfare to LA for the kid's visit? I'd like to do a spreadsheet analysis of all of their financials. Looks to me like they let their crotches do all the thinking, not what one would expect from a financial writer.

[DrJ]

The truth is W&B simply allowed themselves to be used by a bureaucrat with a grudge.

That's true, but all the young pups want that kind of story, and are willing to bend the truth to its breaking point to do so.

My wife is a (former) journalist who covered Wounded Knee. She tells stories about the "important" "journalists" who would parachute into the area with their entourage, report the wrong story, and then leave.

Shortly thereafter she went into sales. Same sort of work, but a lot more honest.

[larry]

I'm not the official greeter, but it's nice to see so many new voices. Welcome all. If you stick to facts and reason and show a modicum of courtesy, R B won't defenestrate you.

Clarice-the penalty for using puns? He started it ma! Watching so many military ceremonies today reminded me of an ancient one about the old west outlaw who fathered 7 sons by each of 3 different women. Wanted, dead or alive-21 son galoot.

[Jane]

the kitchen skink.

If I had skinks, I would steal that.

[narciso]

There are so many ironies, to the Felt case, which I remarked to Clarice, on the occasion of his passing, and the subsequent
Pajamas Media piece. First there's the question whether Felt is the only source, for DT. Pat Gray's son suggests it may have
other figures like Don Santarelli, one of those officials credited with 'coining the War on Drugs'. A hardline Cold Warrior who thought his own efforts against domestic insurgents, like the Weatherman, could not be effected by his crusade against Nixon, which has had impacts to the present day. He ironically helped undermine the detente
consensus, and brought a left reaction and
a right backlash

[PD]

"You have a blue tailed skink?

I want one."

I'm jealous, too. As a kid I had a dozen snakes as pets (simultaneously), but I never saw a skink. There weren't many of them (if any) in my neck of the woods. Sigh.

[Extraneus]

The infamous Blue Tongue Skink:

http://www.reptilesweb.com/images/stories/datso_pictures/med_BlueTongueSkink.jpg" width=106 height=79 style="float:left;margin:10px 10px 0;border:1px solid" alt="See full size image">

[Elliott]

What gives a man who supported with great fanfatre the candidate of the Democrats the right to speak for the Republican party?

Good question. In a similar vein, having had the misfortune of glancing at a CNN tuned television earlier today, I noticed the RNC's Nancy Pelosi ad was being discussed. I didn't watch but I assume the same benefit of the doubt was extended to the RNC as was extended to Mr. Big Obama when he made his "lipstick on a pig" remarks.

[Extraneus]

And not to be outdone, the Blue Tailed Skink:

[centralcal]

eewww, Extraneus. I don't think I like skinks - well, I know I wouldn't like to run into one unexpectedly.

However, I DO like anything (almost) that eats insects! But, still . . . there is always bug spray. (Oh, shut up, Al Gore types).

[Elliott]

Who Will Ombud The Ombudsman?

The Ombudsminuteman, clearly. But, please take care when dealing with an Ombudsmaniac.

[Ina]

Two questions:

If Andrews was a middle-class black guy, and the mortgage broker had suggested that maybe he should rent, rather than take on so much debt, how quickly would Andrews have called a lawyer and sued?

Why does Sloman use "I liked him" as an excuse? Will Dick Cheney/GW Bush/Condi Rice get the same kid-glove treatment on a book tour?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2009/05/response-to-andrews-mcardle.html

[Extraneus]

They're a lot cuter than most other reptiles I've been aquainted with, cc.

[Extraneus]

Although I do have a weakness for the female Veiled Chameleon:

[Al Gibson]

Has anybody found this so-called "Bob Andrews" at the mortgage company to get his side of the story?

Edmund Andrews' recall of their conversation a few years back seems to smell. I could be wrong. It's just a hunch. It wouldn't surprise me if "Bob Andrews" is now working with "Lucy Ramirez", if you know what I'm sayin.

[rk]

I have followed MM's reporting from the get-go on this.

It is beyond rich that the NYT "Economics" "reporter" can't figure out his finances. At one point he has a panic attack about realizing that they had $200 in their checking (this shortly after buying a 460K home)

It is totally predictable that a real economics reporter like MM digs a little deeper than anyone else.

Megan cuts pretty close to the bone in terms of exposing their finances...but it is richly disserved for a Upper Middle Class wannabe who can't figure out how to live within his means.

Because of slugs like he and his wife, the rest of us 1. pay for their bailouts 2. earn 0 on our savings.

His book will no doubt be featured on Oprah. But Yeah for Megan...one honest person stands up.

[Danube of Thought]

Where did Benno come up with this stuff about "the Times is a great newspaper?"

I'm pretty sure that all three of the credit-reporting companies come out very close to the same on debtors' histories, and in any event prospective lenders get all three of them. At least they always do with me.

Amazing that so many people seem to give a shit about this moron Andrews. What a whining fool.

The guy who wrote the Daily News item about Powell, Cheney et al. is a squeaky-voiced little twit of a sportswriter who for some reason has been allowed to get hall passes out of the toy department to write about grownup stuff. A mistake. And it didn't seem to bother him a bit when Obama criticized John McCain, or Dole went after Clinton. But then, he's a "journalist."

[Extraneus]

Wasn't it Megan McCardle who wrote the piece not long ago about how being a writer and hanging with all the beautiful people makes it hard to remember that you don't personally make that much money, and can't live their lifestyles? I think it was. In fact, I think it might have been after she wrote the piece about Andrews.

Ah, no, it was the piece *about* Andrews, which explains why she's so pissed about his whining.

[Extraneus]

The green jobs are coming!

A shame they have to be government jobs, though. Maybe if they can jack up energy prices a bit, some will come from the private sector. That would be so cool.

[Fresh Air]

Extraneus--

McCardle claimed she endorsed Zero because of his strong economic team. What a hoot! I suspect, however, that she, like Brooks, Frum, Buckley and Whashername was just afraid of having to stand alone at parties.

[Jane]

Extraneus,

Is that skink on a rug?

How long is it?

[PD]

Jane, you see a rug because that's a kept skink.

[jimmyk]

McCardle claimed she endorsed Zero because of his strong economic team.

Maybe that explains why she's no longer on Brad DeLong's "stupidest-woman-alive" list.

Another NYTimes item I found notable is their story on how a couple of their reporters got the scoop on Watergate but dropped it. According to the Times: "The Times missed a chance to get the jump on the greatest story in a generation."

Now which generation is that, I'm wondering? Surely there were greater stories, just none more triumphal for leftwing journalists. I've long thought Watergate was one of the most over-hyped story of the 20th century, and the fact that it brought down Nixon does not refute that, nor make it "the greatest." But to liberals, this was the high point of journalism, and it ushered in a whole generation of reporters who are more interested in making news than reporting it.

[finprof]

>>“Your credit scores are almost perfect,”

The wording is accurate (albeit misleading) because everyone has 3 credit scores, one from each bureau (TransUnion, Equifax, Experian).

So "your credit scores" clearly meant HIS three individual scores, not her bankruptcy-impeded score(s) which had to be far from perfect.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

The green jobs are coming!

But are they "shovel ready"?

[Jim Miller]

At one time there was a blogger who called himself the "Ombudsgod", and made a specialty of correcting ombudsmen. Unfortunately, he stopped publishing late in 2007.

As for Megan McArdle's decision rule in presidential elections, I can add one little tidbit: In a post before the election, she described Barack Obama as "well-informed". Several commenters, including me, asked her why she thought so. She didn't reply.

So I sent her a couple of polite emails asking her to explain. No reply.

I am inclined to think that she was projecting, based on Obama's credentials, and didn't really have an answer to the question.

And she may have been taken in by an ancient ploy, and thought that his list of "advisors" told you something about what his policies would be. It should have been obvious that most of them were just decorations, with much the same function as bunting on a campaign stage.

(For the record, I think that Obama is poorly informed, and often misinformed. And I am still appalled by his reading list, though Michiko Kakutani thought it was great.)

[Danube of Thought]

Well, on a more upbeat note I see that O's "strongly approve" number at Ras is down to 33%, its all-time low. However, it's been at 34% several times, so this probably means nothing at all. I would imagine that something very close to 33% of the electorate are true-believng numskulls who pay very little attention to anything other than the fact that he is, after all, Obama.

Bruce Bartlett has a column dissing the right and urging Powell to run for office. Nowhere does he disclose a single belief held by Powell that would identify him as a Republican. It was a GOP president who made him chair of the JCS, and for a time that was enough to seal the deal. But there's nothing else there that I'm aware of.

[Johanna Lapp]

Funny: This was the plot of tonight's "How I Met Your Mother" rerun. Shopaholic wife's mountainous debts SHOULD have sunk their plans to buy an overpriced apartment, but they blunder ahead anyway. If I remember the rest of the season correctly, they'll regret this for years.

[PD]

"Bruce Bartlett has a column dissing the right and urging Powell to run for office."

That's a great idea. Put the appeal of Powell's agenda to the empirical test.

[Ignatz]

--Bruce Bartlett has a column dissing the right and urging Powell to run for office.--

I believe it's time Tom Bethell at the AmSpec bestowed his "Strange New Respect" award on Bartlett.
He's become a total squish.

[verner]

Jane, Did you really think I was making up Blue tailed Skinks? How funny. I can only imagine what you thought I had living in my flower pots! Tiny, slutty fairies with blue bums?

[centralcal]

verner: Jane wasn't alone in thinking your skinks were imaginary. Slutty fairies sound pretty creepy, though.

[Ann]

Not that we should be surprised. The blue tailed skink that lives in a flower pot on my back porch has more integrity than the entire NYT staff put together.

Verner, I have to fess up, too. I thought you were talking about blue eyed devils that were always on my back porch at home and I always fell for them. Even married a good one. :)

[J.M. Heinrichs]

For those whose needs are more pressing, this may be a preferred Skink: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skink_anti-aircraft_tank.

Cheers

[narciso]

You know I'm going to the dentist tomorrow for a tooth extraction, but I somehow think
this situation is actually more painful than anything tomorrow; from a formerly sane
Carl Cannon, which sets my nerves off on edge;

[Ralph L]

I flipped to CSPAN a few minutes ago and saw the applause for O's speech at Arlington. Happily, the TOTUS obscured his head entirely. Odd that sometimes they are clear, and sometimes opaque.

[Uncle BigBad]

He's [Bartlett] become a total squish.

He's been one for quite some time.

[Easter]

ROTFLOL.... Let me get my breath.

Steve Sailer is an extreme racist - period. He does write a lot.

Do a search on Steve Sailer racist.

[Easter]

Excellent post Tom Maguire. I am not a fan of McArdle but she nailed the NYT with clear research.

[Tman]

According to McCardle, Patty Barreiro filed BK twice -"The second time was while they were married, a detail that didn't make it into either the book or the excerpt that ran in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine."
This is relevant to Andrews screed about the "crazy economic world we live in where he's 'just scraping by' at $2800 a month", which made him stupid enough to pretend he was a millionaire, and a bank was stupid enough to let him.

Why?

He had someone telling him it wasn't stupid.

Ah, l'amour....

[Anon]

I did not real all the posts, so someone may have already posted something like this but, being a mortgage broker in California I have an extreme amount of knowledge about this particular subject Here is the thing:(1)BK's stay on credit reports for 10 years. (2)I was not there but I have absolute perfect knowledge of what went down because I know brokers and I know borrowers and they both always do the samething in their situation. It ALWAYS goes down the same way...ALWAYS.(3)The broker pulled credit on both husband and wife, had a discussion that they keep the wife off the loan because her credit hurts the ability to qualify, husband and wife enthusiastically agree to all the terms. (4)Anybody who disagrees with me is ignorant or a liar or both(including the borrowers and the broker involved)

[daddy]

1) "The blue tailed skink that lives in a flower pot on my back porch has more integrity than the entire NYT staff put together."

2) "I found a pic of Andrews and "the love of his life" Patty. She looks to be a head taller than he is, younger,big boobs and red hair. My guess, if this book doesn't pan out, the grifter will move on to the next mark."

3) "Clark Hoyt doesn't have any integrity..."
______________________________________________________

A skink and a skank and a skunk
In a Blog about New York Times Junk,
Caused this poem that's so bad
that this horrible dad
Is going down town to get drunk:)