Sound Off

BY MIKE JENNER, Californian executive editor | Thursday, Nov 2 2006 2:38 PM

Last Updated: Wednesday, Nov 1 2006 10:09 PM

Reader: Your publication of a USA Today article, "How to Flop with Flipping," is not about a poster child as described. It is about stupidity and fraud.

Serin is a young man with absolutely no sense of business or ethics, yet your paper chose to run this article as a bit of fun entertainment, or your staff was tired on Friday and could not find anything else better to feature. Was there a word mentioned that the bank fraud Serin committed is a felony?

Come on, Californian. I purchase your paper for informative and serious news about the real estate market, and not so I can read about some amateur investor who attended some real estate who tried to buck the system, and was set for failure from the start.

Leave the gimmick stories to the tabloids and USA Today.

-- Clint Freeman

Jenner: The story about the real estate investment mistakes made by young Casey Serin, the subject of last Sunday's Real Estate cover, was indeed about stupidity and fraud.

However, we did not run it because we thought it was "fun entertainment." Serin certainly was not the only person to get in over his head in the recent real estate boom. His story stands as both a cautionary tale and a historical account of the overconfidence that has made the market's continuing decline so painful for so many.

Serin did finance some of his home purchases by using "liar loans," as the story put it. And the article clearly stated that lying on a mortgage application is a "federal crime."

Quoting a representative of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the story said that what Serin admits to doing is "bank fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud and potentially a host of state offenses. This can result in jail time."

The article made no excuses for Serin's deceit, even as it put them in the context of a headstrong, inexperienced investor trying to get rich quick. Better yet, it provided strong evidence of what can happen, even short of jail time, when one makes the mistakes Serin made.

I thought it was newsworthy and interesting. I'm sorry you found no value in it.

Reader: I noticed in Sunday's paper that there were two full pages of people who have been charged with domestic violence.

Is that how the paper accounts for the charges for a loved one's obituary?

-- Carlene Travis

Jenner: We did publish the photos of about 140 domestic violence offenders who have outstanding warrants against them. This consumed slightly more than a page of Sunday's paper.

We did this as part of a partnership with the Bakersfield Police Department to help the department round up these individuals and resolve their cases. We also wanted to send a message to offenders, and to raise the level of awareness of the magnitude and seriousness of domestic violence in our community.

Yes, we charge a fee for obituaries, based on their length. Because we know not everyone can afford a lengthy obituary, we offer a free listing of an individual's passing, along with the notice of scheduled services.

We do publish for free the obituaries of local servicemen and women and public safety officers who are killed in the line of duty.

And it is true that the revenue produced by any advertising or paid services helps offset the cost of news stories or photos, including the domestic violence offenders you mention.

Publishing a newspaper isn't cheap. We need to earn our way and we aren't subsidized by donations or tax dollars.