David Streitfeld wrote an article in the New York Times on October 14, 2010. In this article he reported on the case that kicked off the mortgage forclosure freeze. In his article he interviewed Mrs. Nicolle Bradbury and her attorney's at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Geoffrey S. Lewis and Thomas A. Cox.
According to the article, Mrs. Bradbury defaulted on her mortgage loan after getting it refinanced. She is in fault for not making her payments. However, the actual story here is the processes that her mortgage company used when they forclose on a house. GMAC was having people who had no information about the process forclosing on mortgages. They were basically rubber stamping the forclosures in the same manner that they rubber stamped the mortgages to begin with.
At the beginning of the article Streitfeld gave a physical description of the Bradbury's home. He stated that the house is "blue-gray and weathered." That the "porch is piled with furniture and knickknacks awaiting the next yard sale," and that "in the driveway is a busted pickup truck." These are details that Streitfeld received through physical observation.
There was much information that Streitfeld obtain through reading. It appears that he gained information from several written sources. These sources include the internet, court files, and other news articles. Streitfeld stated "Every attorney general in the country is participating in an investigation into the flawed paperwork and questionable methods behind many of them." This information would be gained from news outlets, and public records of court files. Streitfeld also writes about the Senate hearing that is scheduled to investigate the problems associated with the forclosure crisis. This information he would have gained from the U.S. Senate website. It also seems that Streitfeld also received his information from GMAC documents and previous statements made by their employees, representatives, and attorneys. The statements made by the presiding judge in the Bradbury's forclosure case would have been obtained from the court documents and files.
It is very likely that Mr. Streitfeld spent a minimum of a week, but more likely 2-3 weeks researching the written material and interviewing sources. I believe that his time was well spent because of the wealth of information he was able to provide to the pulic regarding the processes of GMAC and other large mortgage companies. The details provided give readers knowledge that they didn't have previously. I do think that the story could have focused more on GMAC and their horrendous practices rather than a family that lost their income and stopped making payments. It is not GMAC's fault that the Bradbury's stopped making their payments two years ago, and in most cases the Bradbury's would already have lost their house. The Bradbury's story does give the national forclosure crisis a face and makes the story more personal. The details allow the individual reader to relate to what is happening in a different part of the country.
Streitfeld was not able to really get both sides of the story. However, this was not his fault. GMAC did not return calls to discuss the matter. He did get many of his facts from the court records, which makes it more objective than if he had only received his information from the Bradbury's and their attorneys. It also appears that he did not over play the financial situation of the Bradburys. He stated their situation in a plain to the point manner, rather than making it sound like they had been abused by GMAC.
I think that Streitfeld could have been more successful with his story if he had focused more on GMAC and their business practices. They issued mortgages to people who they knew would not be able to keep up with the payments. On top of the mortgage, in many cases, they issued a loan to allow the homeowner make repairs to the home they purchased. This needs to be brought to light better than it was in this article.
Murray states, "Art is first craft." This means that reporting is the craft of journalism. The craft is listening and recording details. This is something that can be honed and one can become better at it. The writing aspect of journalism is the art. Writing in any form is art, it has to be polished, look nice, and read well in order for the audience to read it throughly and enjoy it. The craft and art of reporting and writing are very important to all journalists. I believe that a journalist has to be able to master both the craft and the art of journalism. If a reporter can listen well and pick up details that others cannot, but this reporter is a poor writer he/she will not do well as a journalist. The same is true for a reporter that can write but does not gather the proper details or amount of information for an article will not go far in their career either. In order to be a successful journalist you have to master the art and the craft.
