Local Government Collections Gets Surprise Support from National News Broadcast

Last night, the national broadcast of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams included a segment on local debt collection. The piece, focusing primarily on library fine collections, included interviews with a consumer, a representative from a library and collection industry expert Mike Ginsberg.

The story was noteworthy for the collection industry not for its content ? a consumer caught unawares by a mark on his credit report ? but for its tone. The segment was generally positive and even somewhat supportive of the practice of local governments using collection agencies to pursue overdue local government debt, a notable departure from the recent stories circulating in the media about the horrors of debt collection. In fact, one of the main takeaways from the piece urged consumers to pay the bills they receive from debt collectors.

To view a webcast of this edition of NBC Nightly News, please visit http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?f=00&t=m5&p=angietest&g=36088a46-24d3-4189-bd47-2ecd1f1d3773. Note that the entire broadcast resides at this link and that the segment on debt collection runs at the very end of the episode.