Network journalists gave borrowers a pass when it came to debt, but didn’t extend the same courtesy to companies. Businesses were blamed six times as often as borrowers for debt, foreclosures, bankruptcy, lack of health insurance and similar financial dilemmas.

     Reporters labeled lenders “unscrupulous,” “deceptive,” and “abusive” and said they “lured” borrowers to financial ruin. As earlier noted, ABC even labeled mortgage lenders “The Home Wreckers” in its March 2007 series, accusing mortgage lenders of “taking borrowers down the road to bankruptcy.” Loan products got the same treatment, being referred to as “cheap,” “easy,” “risky,” “bad” and even “toxic.”

     All three networks blamed lenders, mortgage companies, credit card companies and even the National Football League for people’s debt. “He once wore number 73 for the Jacksonville Jaguars. But today, Brian DeMarco says that punishment has left him totally disabled, uninsured and broke because he can’t get the NFL to hear his claim for disability benefits,” said ABC’s Dean Reynolds on June 26, 2007.

     ABC sided with players, raising a tough question: Should the NFL be blamed when DeMarco chose a career that typically lasts less than four years and comes with a high risk of serious injuries or disability – not to mention much higher pay than average Americans? According to USA Today, DeMarco made $464,500 in 1996, for just one of his four years of NFL play. That was more than 13 times the median household income of $35,172 the same year, but “World News” didn’t provide that context for viewers.

     NBC also took up the cause of disgruntled NFL players on July 13, 2007, in a “Making a Difference” segment.

     Hedge fund managers were hit hard by “NBC Nightly News” on June 26, 2007. Reporter Carl Quintanilla criticized funds that made “bad bets” and “lost billions” and then worried “they’re trying to court a new, more vulnerable audience.” That “vulnerable” group of people, according to NBC, is the upper middle class.

     Quintanilla’s segment also tainted the reputation of “hedge fund millionaires” by showing a clip from the quintessential “business is evil” movie, “Wall Street,” and mentioning the upcoming sequel that will feature villain Gordon Gekko as a hedge fund manager.

     That fit the network’s pattern. NBC blamed business more than ABC or CBS – nine times more often than borrowers. CBS blamed business seven times as often as borrowers and ABC blamed business four times as often.

     Borrowers on all three networks were blamed in only 10 stories out of 156 – a measly 6 percent. That small number included some outlandish examples of personal spending – including one about a “Santa” who repaired and gave away cars, but fell “way behind” on his own car payments; a condo-flipper in Miami who spent her entire life savings on the investment, and NFL players like DeMarco who made roughly $430,000 above the median income in 1996.

     Contrast that with the 66 times that businesses were blamed – more than 42 percent of all stories. The networks attacked lenders for loaning money and for not loaning money. They battered banks for overdraft fees and charged credit card companies with trapping customers with high interest and fees.

     As the year went on, the increased number of defaulting mortgages led to an increase in coverage of the subprime lending industry. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, there were about 620,000 homes in some stage of the foreclosure process in the second quarter of 2007. The media used the number as another excuse to attack industry. Brian Williams described adjustable mortgages as “time bombs” and NBC’s Diana Olick accused lenders of “entic[ing] borrowers with no money down and low monthly payments” on the March 9, 2007, “Nightly News.”

     In that same story, borrower Tammy Omada also blamed her lender for her financial difficulty: “She should have just been honest and said, you know, ‘You can’t afford this loan.’”

     Network reporters used quotes just like that to blame business. Reporters turned to a long line of experts and man-on-the-street interviews to support their criticism. One of the strongest statements of blame throughout the study window came from securities consultant Janet Tavakoli on the Aug. 4, 2007, “Evening News.” She was being interviewed about the impact of foreclosures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average when she blasted mortgage companies:

     “[T]his was one of the largest Ponzi schemes in financial history, where basically risky mortgage products were made to people who couldn’t afford them.”

     In the financial world, that was the mother of all criticisms. “Ponzi” schemes are “a type of illegal pyramid scheme” where money from new investors is used to pay earlier investors until it collapses. But Charles Ponzi’s own scheme was an audacious currency and postage fraud in which he promised investors a 40 percent return in 90 days, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

     On American streets, victims are mugged, shot or even killed. To become a “victim” on the evening news, all people had to do was borrow money.

     NBC showcased Petra Reyes, a California condo owner, as a soon-to-be foreclosure victim during the Aug. 9, 2007, broadcast. When Reyes declared that her lender “did absolutely nothing” for her, the “Nightly News” didn’t include any rebuttal. Instead the reporter underlined Reyes’ perspective, saying, “She feels cheated.”

     In its “Home Wreckers” series, ABC’s “World News” included a couple who “lived off of peanut butter and jelly” to avoid foreclosure.

     Each victim seemed more distressed than the one before. The Aug. 8, 2007, “Evening News” featured a report about Steve Skvara, a “60-year-old retired steel worker” who asked the Democratic presidential candidates what they would do about health insurance.

     “Every day of my life I sit at the kitchen table across from the woman who devoted 36 years of her life to my family and I can’t afford to pay for her health care. What’s wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?” Skvara asked.

     Then CBS reporter Michelle Miller blamed Skvara’s former employer for his financial troubles: “Steve Skvara spent more than 30 years working here at the LTV Steel plant in East Chicago, Indiana … But then the company went bankrupt. His financial future crumbled. He lost part of his pension and all of his health insurance.”

     Victim stories were a favorite practice for all three networks. In debt-related stories, the three networks featured victims 62 percent (97/156) of the time. By wrapping their debt stories around the most sympathetic and problem-plagued people they could find, the networks undermined the very idea of accountability. Borrowers were pitied, businesses blamed. The networks pointed to government intervention as the answer, the typical liberal solution.

     “Thousands of homeowners lured in by those easy-to-get mortgages…,” fretted ABC’s David Muir on the June 12, 2007, broadcast. When it came to employing the “woe is me” angle, ABC beat the rest. ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” employed the victim angle in 33 out of 44 stories, or 75 percent of the time.

     “World News” anchor Dan Harris introduced a June 17, 2007, story by attacking private lenders who “may be hurting the poorest students.” Nicole Gibson was supposed to represent that statement. The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) graduate said, “I got to sacrifice food on my table [because of her high student loan payments] and I don’t see that as a fair, fair option.” The ABC report claimed that the young woman made only $1,400 a month and owed $1,200 a month in student loans.

     But correspondent Gigi Stone didn’t explore ideas like renegotiating the payment plan, loan consolidation and other avenues for lower payments including a different job or relocating. Gibson also had problems of her own making. ABC didn’t mention that tuition at RIT was nearly $25,000 a year – more than four times the average annual cost of undergraduate tuition, according to the October 2006 U.S. News and World Report.

     ABC further promoted the idea that students are poorly treated by lenders by quoting liberal Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York State, who said, “They’re being victimized when they go to those private lenders and that’s wrong.”

     While they didn’t rely on victims as much as ABC, NBC used them in 61 percent (33/54) of stories and CBS used victims in 53 percent (31/58).

     June 12, 2007, was a good night for victims on the “NBC Nightly News.” In a story about the pending retirement of baby boomers, reporter Tom Costello painted a picture of seniors, actually a “senior tsunami,” that would start “rolling across the country in just five years.”

     The illustration? A 61-year-old “active” single mother “without enough savings to even consider retirement.” These retirees, according to the featured expert from the liberal Brookings Institution, are the “Woodstock generation, OK? … Their parents are the Ozzie and Harriet generation.” This explanation seemed intended to excuse this group’s lack of retirement foresight.

     Costello reported that these seniors were the “type that actually will live for today rather than save for tomorrow.” He added that most of these seniors were “likely to keep working because they have to.” But Costello implied that the “dream of a tropical retirement” not being “an option” for retiring boomers was a function of the economy, rather than a lack of planning on the part of the retirees. The 61-year-old single mom, brought back on to bookend the piece, commented that the tropical retirement had become a “dream of the past.”

     CBS used victims less than the other two networks, but still had them in more than half its stories (31 out of 58). Katie Couric’s introduction to the Aug. 7, 2007, broadcast included this pity-full sentence: “There’s no place like home. And no home at all for many Americans who can’t get a mortgage.”

     When the networks framed stories around a victimization case study, they rarely told viewers how the featured “victims” got into their predicament. In a story from the Aug. 23, 2007, ABC broadcast, the problem was portrayed in two steps.

     First, reporter Betsy Stark introduced a hairstylist in Atlanta with a subprime mortgage she was unable to refinance. The viewer was never told why. After reporting that 3 million adjustable-rate mortgages were due to reset in the next year, Stark then cut to a sound bite from Sharon LaPierre, who said, “Ten days before Christmas I was served with foreclosure papers that I would lose the house. It wasn’t a very good Christmas.” No context was provided for either woman’s situation. Stark juxtaposed these stories with a pitch for a government bailout.

“The issue now is how to keep people in their homes and the country out of recession. Bailout plans are starting to circulate. One proposal: a national mortgage refinancing corporation that would keep people in their houses by getting them into loans at affordable rates. We’re gonna be debating this for a while.”

     Besides using profile pieces and emotional pleas, the networks also painted a picture of victimization without actually presenting victims on the screen. Reporters and anchors used loaded language like “trapping homeowners who took advantage of risky loans,” or “investors are plagued,” or “Americans are being hurt,” to communicate the message that borrowers were victims.

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Executive Summary