From AJR, November 1991 Visit SBS, Where Smart People Get Smarter Faster
	The Realtors Home In Real Estate Strong Arm
		Related reading:	Realtors and Builders Demand Happy News...and Often Get It Two New Surveys Show The Industry's Reach
	By Unknown Elizabeth Lesly, author of this article, was herself a recent target of the real estate industry's wrath. As a business reporter at The Times Union in Albany, New York, she wrote a piece in 1990 about the arcane workings of the industry, including the fact that most home buyers are unaware that real estate agents, in most transactions, represent the seller. A longer version of the article later appeared in The Washington Monthly. The Wall Street Journal then printed a condensed version under the headline, "How Your Realtor Rips You Off." In response, the Journal received angry letters and calls from many Realtors who demanded retractions and threatened to cancel their subscriptions. The National Association of Realtors claimed the article was filled with "half-truths, innuendo and downright lies." When the Journal stood firm, some Realtors began a letter-writing campaign to The Times Union, demanding more "constructive criticism." At a morning-long meeting with an attorney representing the state's Realtors, Editor Harry Rosenfeld rejected charges that Lesly's article was biased. When the dust settled, Advertising Director David White was talking with local Realtors and builders about creating a separate real estate section and, Lesly says, she no longer "felt comfortable with the beat." Lesly left The Times Union last April and moved to Washington, D.C., to work for States News Service.
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