In a piece in today's Business Section labeled "News Analysis," LAT reporter Michael Hiltzik writes about Countrywide Financial's problems. He notes that Countrywide's delinquency and foreclosure rates have soared "on many Countrywide loans." Does he mean to say those rates have soared for the company as a whole or only for certain loans? It isn't clear and maybe that's what Hiltzik intended. Nowhere does he say what the rates are or were except on a graph that depicts Countrywide's "total loans pending foreclosure." The graph shows the percent of loans pending foreclosure rising from .4 in 2004 (the low point) to .74 in 2007. That's a surge but at less than one percent the high point is still very low. Certainly it isn't high enough to threaten Countrywide's existence.
It isn't clear what "news analysis" means to the LAT. Is news analysis something that belongs in the opinion section but is published elsewhere in the newspaper? Is it a piece about which the editors couldn't decide? Does it contain mostly fact and a little opinion but not much news? Only the LAT knows for sure.
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