With a number of top business entities promoting the EB-5, the mainstream media has tuned in on the business of the EB5.  It is being promoted more heavily than ever because these groups and interested legislators know what a benefit a well-managed EB-5 program can be to the United States economy.  Articles have come up in magazines and newspapers all over the U.S. and the globe, and they are often a favored resource for potential immigrants.  After all, magazines and mainstream media have a reputation above and beyond the Internet world, and are generally considered to be the pinnacle for accurate reporting.  We wish very much that that were the case, but we cannot confidently say that it is.  Once again, even with magazine articles and mainstream media sources, all may not be as it appears.

As part of the research and due diligence we perform for the various aspects of our business, we have read and analyzed hundreds of articles from magazines and newspapers.  There are some excellent, shining examples with real, useful, reliable information in the mainstream media; and then there are those that are not as well informing, and those that have gained placement not based on their informational value, but based on the financial value to the publisher in question.  Let us explain.

Magazines and newspaper have two main sources of income.  The first is the readers who buy the publication, and the second is the advertisers who pay to be in it.  Generally speaking, the editors of a publication maintain independence and control over the content; in reality, however, sometimes this leads to them upsetting their advertisers—the biggest source of income that most publications have.  Hence, publications are often conflicted as to how to balance out the information provision and business management aspects of their job.

The result is a conflict of interest, the consequence of which becomes evident after you spend some time really looking at the information being offered and the publication as a whole.  The most troubling examples are where certain articles on the EB-5 were written by the same companies who were advertising specific EB5 programs (paying for ad space) within the same magazine or publication.  That makes their impartiality questionable to say the least.  Worse still is the fact that if you looked further and analyzed these companies (as we did, but most others would not), you find that the people who are being presented as knowledgeable experts had processed few or no EB-5 regional center investments at the time of their writing.

The biggest trap that we see potential immigrants falling into when researching EB-5 options through magazines and the like is that they fail to ask themselves some essential questions, like:

• Who wrote this article?
• Why?
• What was their intention behind writing it?
• What other possible motivation could there be for them to write this article?
• Is this publication really impartial to this entity or individual?

It is not beyond understanding that readers do not ask these questions, as the mainstream media is supposed to be an unbiased source for information (and besides that, it could be difficult or impossible for the average reader to know the answers to these questions anyway).  From the perspective of the reader it can be easy to assume that these articles are safe and impartial, and that they come from a learned source of information.  Quite honestly, you should be able to assume that, but it could be dangerous for you to do so.  Perhaps the writer is experienced, expert, and impartial; but perhaps not.