The Power Of The PressIf there’s one thing most companies dread, it’s seeing their names splashed across the front page of their local paper when they know they haven’t sent out a press release recently.
But that experience is exactly what muckraking journalism Web site ProPublica.org is trying to bring to banks across the country. The group has been reporting for months on the foreclosure crisis, in particular the difficulties debtors face when trying to successfully complete the often complex loan modification program.
When ProPublica asked for homeowners who had encountered problems dealing with banks and servicers to share their stories, they were overwhelmed with responses. Since their own journalistic work couldn’t mention more than a handful of the hundreds of homeowners who contacted them, ProPublica has now started a matchmaker service, hooking up homeowners with local papers and news outlets eager to report on how the foreclosure crisis is affecting people in their area.
Now, banks can look forward to every instance of dropped calls, lost paperwork and surly customer service getting a full airing on the front page in their local market, and will have to be on their toes.
Hopefully nobody else out there is repeating Bank of America’s recent blunder, when they foreclosed on the wrong house, repo’ing the rightful owner’s pet parrot in the process. If so, the vengeance of the local penny press may know no bounds.
Worth noting – The Teller is heartless. And selfish. So don’t expect us to share any of our hard-earned space in the pages of this illustrious paper with whining homeowners. We give enough space to whining bankers, appraisers, brokers, leasing agents, buyers agents, insurance agents, assessors…
