The mainstream national media has never been kind to debt collection agencies. But two new attacks launched today seem to sink to new levels.


WCBS-TV in New York, the flagship station of the CBS Television Network, has a video story posted on its site titled “Collection Agents Increasingly Belligerent”. The copy used in the story is posted as a story on the site as well. In it, the reporter claims that collectors are “becoming more and more abusive” and “terrorizing” debtors. There are no numbers or figures to back up the claims; anecdotal evidence from the point of view of the debtor is all that is used. In fact, no data is used at all in the story. And there were no quotes from representatives of the collection industry. The reporter seems to be covering the same ground that has been trodden for years and years. To view the story and the video, please see http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_339224705.html.


It is unclear if the story actually ran on the airwaves.


In another medium, the Kansas City Star newspaper is running a story called “The Zombie Debt” on their front page today. Not only is the story above the fold on the front page, it dominates the entire page with a massive picture of a hand holding credit cards coming up through the ground in front of a tombstone.


The substance of the story amounts to an attack on the debt purchasing community and largely focuses on popular industry target NCO, and, of course, CAMCO. The Star story does, however, allow a couple of industry people to speak.


To view the Star story online, please visit http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/13337083.htm.


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