CNN Spins Words of Ex-Debt Collectors into "Confessions"

Last week CNN Money published a slideshow of ten ex-debt collection workers’ experiences in the industry centered on “in their own words” accounts of why they left the profession.

The absence of any overt editorial framing by CNN appears on the surface of things to present these former debt collectors in a disinterested manner.  But calculated editorial decisions were in fact made to draw readers into the content through understated sensationalism and, once hooked, color their perceptions of the accounts receivable management industry in the same worn-out coat of paint as so many previous accounts of third party debt collectors.

First consider the title of the piece, "Confessions of Former Debt Collectors."  To confess is to acknowledge, avow, or admit.  The object of those admissions is typically one of two things: guilt or sin.  Might CNN’s “unfiltered” exhibition of one-time collection agency representatives have been received differently had the words “stories” or “narratives” or “anecdotes” been substituted for “confessions?”

Second, not until the fifth slide do readers encounter a positive (or even neutral) account of a debt collector’s experience.  On the contrary, the first four profiles describe anti-social (Mel: “I had a black heart.”), cruel (Alexis: “Collectors I knew regularly held contests to see who could make the most people cry in one day.”), sickening (“…he [the debtor] winded up going home and shooting himself.”), and illegal behavior (Anonymous: “One of the guys in a nearby cubicle called up debtors and posed as a legal counsel”).  And even when a past collector demonstrates ethical business practices (Mike: “I didn’t try to scare people or take advantage of peoples’ ignorance by threatening things like eviction even though we weren’t allowed to evict someone.”), his section concludes with a knotty sentiment: “And there’s no point in telling a deadbeat they’re a deadbeat. They already know it.”

Well, Mike, how about not calling them “deadbeats” in the first place?  They’re debtors, just like millions of other Americans.

It’s not my job (or inclination) as an editor and writer to play apologist for the ARM industry.  Even as I remain skeptical of the kinds of journalistic sleight of hand I believe are being deployed in the CNN Money example, there is undoubtedly some legitimacy to at least some of what these people have to say.  And it would be wise for owners and executives in the collection industry to use these less than ideal accounts—as well as the slew of reader comments, Diggs, Tweets, and Facebook shares—as a teaching moment that starts with holding a mirror up to their own companies’ training, monitoring, and collection practices.

Notwithstanding my advice to the ARM industry, I’m not quite ready to grant CNN a full pardon or total absolution for its "Confessions."  "News" like this surely gives the lie to the idea that third party collection agencies operate in a vacuum.  Debt collectors do what they do through contractual agreements with creditors—banks, card issuers, hospitals, automotive lenders, etc.  And while those financial sectors have certainly taken their public relations body blows since the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, credit grantors are rarely taken to task for initiating collection action against consumers.

While the analogy isn’t entirely copasetic, some consumers’ responses to the horrific BP oil spill—to boycott the 11,000 service stations across the U.S. that sell BP gasoline but are almost entirely owned and operated by local businesspeople—seem eerily akin to how many consumers react to a collection notice (sent on behalf of their credit card company). 

And I’d wager that some percentage of boycott participants drove their shiny SUVs to protest rallies outside gas stations in their own communities, just as some consumers file online complaints to the FTC about debt collectors with one hand while the other feverishly types credit card information into the billing address field of BuyMoreStuffRightNow.com.

Michael Klozotsky is managing editor of insideARM.com. He can be reached by email.