Witchita Eagle Gets it Wrong

The Center for Consumer Freedom responds to a recent editorial in Kansas’ Witchita Eagle.
“…The Eagle editorial ignored these critical facts while narrowly focusing an ad hominem critique on the payday industry alone. These lenders earn a mere fraction of what traditional banks make on service fees. In 2003, bounced-check and insufficient-fund fees generated $22 billion in [...]

Blaming payday lenders for all of society’s ills

The Community Financial Services Association of America has just issued a press release slamming the recent Reuters story which blamed the mortgage crisis on payday lenders.  The Reuters article is purely anecdotal and those anecdotes come from known payday lending critics. The reporter did not call CFSA or anyone from within the industry for a comment.  Here is what D. Lynn [...]

Like an onion, the further you peel back Reuters story, the stinkier it gets!

As you already know, the Reuter’s story about payday lenders contributing to the subprime mortgage crisis lacks any real documentation to back that assertion up.  The reporter, Nick Carey, gets around this inconvenient truth by simply relying upon quotes from long-time payday lending foes. 
NewsBusters already called out Carey for shoddy reporting, but digging deeper we found [...]

Newsbusters busts Reuters for shoddy journalism

Matthew Vadum at Newsbusters, the popular website that holds media accountable, rips Nick Carey of Reuters for his story connecting payday lending to the housing crisis.  He particularly takes issue with his promiscous quoting of liberal activists. 
Some key quotes:
Carey bases his article almost entirely on anecdotal evidence and on statements by activists with an axe to [...]

The Bank of Mom and Dad

The Wall Street Journal offers advice for young adults needing a short-term loan:  get a loan from the bank of Mom and Dad.   No Plan B is suggested if Mom and Dad don’t have the cash.   

Keeping it real

One of the biggest problems with the payday advance debate is that too many reporters don’t do their homework and wind up getting their facts wrong.  Your Payday Pundit is pleased to see that there are still some newsies out there who take journalistic accuracy seriously and gives kudos to the Birmingham (AL) News for [...]

Wall Street Journal doesn’t do its homework

The February 12th front-page Wall Street Journal story by Ellen E. Schultz and Theo Francis, “Social Insecurity:  High-Interest Lenders Tap Elderly & Disabled” confuses payday lenders with other types of small loan services: primarily installment and catalog lenders. 
The article describes loan practices that are NOT conducted by payday lenders.
Major errors in the WSJ article:

The article [...]