Tried to please her

Redfin CEO and President Glenn Kelman is something of a lightning rod for controversy, in part because many real estate brokers view Redfin's business model as a threat, but also because he's so willing to engage his critics in debate. Whether through Redfin's blog, or on the stage in January's panel discussion with Move.com's Allan Dalton at Connect NYC, Kelman seems to always be either in the thick of a storm or hashing over the one he's just emerged from.

Kelman stayed true to form this morning, where he delivered the keynote address at Bloggers Connect. Casting himself as something of a victim, Kelman shed some light on the production of the May 13 60 Minutes piece that portrayed Redfin as an upstart company out to rescue consumers from the excesses of the traditional 6 percent commission model.

Some critics felt the piece was one sided, with interviewer Lesley Stahl tossing softballs for Kelman to hit out of the park. But that wasn't the way it felt to Kelman.

"The one moment where I laughed on camera was because I couldn't take the tension any more," Kelman said. "She kept saying I was full of s__t. I kept saying I'm not."

For those under the impression that it's 60 Minutes producers who frame the program's stories -- and that the reporters are little more than on-air personalities who parachute in at the last moment -- Kelman said that's not the case.

Stahl was in charge of the story, Kelman said, flying in and out of Seattle many times to conduct interviews. While 60 Minutes found the ideal traditional agent to argue the case for full commissions -- a charismatic guy who drove a Bentley and kept Grey Poupon in the glove box, Kelman joked -- he never appeared on camera because his brokerage wouldn't let him.

When it was time for an on-camera interview with Kelman, Stahl departed from her previous lines of inquiry and sprung a new set of questions, Kelman said, "because Lesley likes to ambush people."

Kelman said he felt intense pressure to be controversial, or say something bombastic. "You feel like you're not giving them what they need," he said. Knowing that only two minutes of a four or five hour interview will ever air, it's hard not to play along, he added.

Ironically, 60 Minutes made Kelman promise not to blog about the story while it was in the works -- a promise he kept for nine months. Kelman found it strange that a news program would be engaged in suppressing the news, and that he found himself in the position of making a rare "no comment" to Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter John Cook who revealed the program was in the works.

Once the story ran, Kelman said, Greg Swann of BloodhoundBlog took a lead role in analyzing the questions it raised. "Greg has long been my antagonist, and of course he is our best friend," Kelman said. "Everytime he writes about us, he brings us business."

A round-table discussion of the media's role in housing markets will take place at 5 p.m. Thursday at Connect SF.

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