Local News Program Runs Absurd Spotlight on Collectors

A crack-team of local television journalists in Texas are on a crusade to wake America up – or, at least, the segment of America that watches KCEN-TV: “Where Central Texas Comes First” – to the dangers that collection agencies pose to the very fabric of our society.

The rhetorical stalwarts of keen argument – “many,” “them,” “some” – pop up repeatedly in the report filed by Matt Gebhard (click here for a transcript and video of the story).  Matt wants viewers to know about the recent phenomenon of “debt buyer” who “[buy] debt from collection companies for pennies on the dollar” and “many times [break] laws to get people to pay up, even lying to scare them.”

Ignoring the hundreds of debt buyers and collection agencies who do follow the law, Gebhard focuses on Texas judge Felipe Reyna, and Judge Reyna’s “harrowing” experience, to prove his point: debt collectors are all law breakers, and will even relentlessly pursue a justice of the peace in their quest for cash.

The collection agency pursuing Reyna (for a debt Reyna alleges he is not responsible) is never identified.

The first segment of Gebhard’s piece subtly alludes to the dangers debt collection could have on the current operation in Iraq as well, ending with an image of a young, fresh-faced soldier, no doubt also suffering in the evil clutches of debt collectors.

While it’s no secret that yes, there are some unscrupulous debt collection and debt buying agencies operating across the country, it does seem unfair to paint an entire industry the same shade of “shifty.”  And, like other industry, there are laws in place to deal with collectors who abuse their position and break the law.  Of course, stories like that rarely make compelling television.