First, blame the victim

Okay, CJR's been all over this one - but its like there's a reflex arc in the media these days.

• Lender deliberately or mistakenly suggests that homeowners who are defaulting on their homes resort to breaking the law.
• Media outlet reports what the lender said. It's not just a statement, it's a trend!
• Evidence that directly refutes the lender's assertion is ignored (or bizarrely, used to "support" the assertion).

I mean, cripes:

Half of defaulting mortgagees are trashing their homes - except they're not.

They're Buying and Bailing - except they're not. 

Defaulters are burning their homes - except they're not.

Phrases like "Jingle mail" and "Trash-out" are catchy, but you'd think the people writing them would bother to enlighten us with numbers instead of anecdotes.