Are Victims Evil?

I’ve written before about how banking laws are for sale (some would say I’ve ranted before).  In that post I discussed payday lending.  I often hear that payday lending is not predatory and that such lenders must be offering a service, else why would people borrow money at 300%, 400%, 500% or even more?

I also hear people blame the victims of payday lending.  Others say the borrowers are at fault for borrowing money at horrible interest rates.  Even borrowers hold themselves at fault.  When (if) they get out of the trap (and make no mistake, it is a trap with a cycle of borrowing the same money repeatedly, because the costs are so high people have great difficulty paying the debt without borrowing to do so) they still blame themselves for getting into it.

Many borrowers blame themselves for being stupid or taking the ‘easy way’ out.  One person I know, when faced with the choice of becoming homeless or getting some money, said she thought the loan was an answer to prayer.  “As I prayed for help,” she said, “an ad for payday loans came on tv.  I thought God was answering my prayer.”  Hundreds and hundreds of dollars later in interest, she thinks it was the devil.…

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Journalism quotes

I reviewed about six sources for quotes to find quotes about journalism and media.  Here are some of my favorites.  People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. -- A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963) To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline…

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Prairie Home Companion and “all the kids are a little above average”

I think I’ve seen one of the top ten stupidest headlines ever created (although I probably should reserve judgment, no doubt humans have not yet reached the zenith of stupidity). It is authored by someone named Charles Murray and in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. The headline that caught my eye:…

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Bloggers: Welcome to the downside of journalism!

A few days ago, I was at the Memphis Convention Center waiting for Dennis Kucinich to enter a large room to begin his press conference.  The reporter sitting in front of me noticed that I was wearing credentials bearing the word “press,” credentials granted by the National Conference for Media Reform.

She asked me about “Dangerous Intersection.”  I told her that it is a blog created in March 2006.  I mentioned that we have a dozen participating authors and that we get about 1100 unique visitors each day. 

She asked, “Would you have ever believed back in March that you would be sitting here covering a press conference of a person running for President of the United States?”   It didn’t cross my mind back then. This blogging experience has taken lots of unexpected twists and turns.  I jokingly told her that she was making me nervous by making the press conference seem more important–and reminding me that I am merely a citizen journalist.  

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(Here I am in Memphis, Citizen Journalist.  The bottom of my badge reads “Press.”)

One of the main points stressed throughout the Media Reform Conference, however, was that journalism is changing rapidly.  Corporate media is struggling (often because its corporate owners are muzzling its reporters) and citizen journalists are stepping into the void.  Though the citizen journalists range in quality, they do include many highly qualified reporters who are having lots of fun contributing to the public discourse.  Prior to this movement, most of these people …

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