Personal Responsibility - it's outdated

Via NewsMax comes this story about personal responsibility and its lack of being mentioned in the drive-by media.

Major news outlets are largely ignoring personal responsibility in their coverage of a recent increase in loan foreclosures, according to a new report from the Business & Media Institute (BMI).

"Everyone who enters into any kind of financial agreement should be expected to read and understand the documents he or she is signing, and if they don't, they shouldn't sign the papers," the report stated. "This was clearly not the position the evening news programs took."

And here's the first six points of the report:

Irresponsible Borrowers off the Hook: Sixty-two percent of the stories on the three networks ignored the consumer's responsibility for debt. Just as many portrayed borrowers as victims, such as the North Carolina family "living off peanut butter and jelly" just to make the mortgage payment.

Business Gets a Black Eye: Lenders and related companies were blamed for borrowers' debt trouble six times as often as borrowers. ABC and NBC even blamed the National Football League for retired players' financial woes.

A Penny Saved or Spent: While network reporters occasionally complained about Americans' negative savings rate, the ideas of savings and thrift were virtually ignored throughout the nine-month period. Only 14 percent of debt-related stories mentioned a savings or thrift theme.

Scary Words about the Economy: Exaggerated descriptions were often used to describe the economy. the terms "economic tsunami," "chaos," "crisis" and "meltdown" painted a bleak scenario that could undermine consumer confidence. Networks included doom-and-gloom remarks from ordinary people and experts 88 times, and the term "recession" was mentioned 10 times.

NBC the Worst: "Nightly News" blamed business nine times as often as borrowers (19 to 2), and tied with "World News with Charles Gibson" in ignoring the issue of personal responsibility. Both networks omitted it in 66 percent of the stories but NBC outdid itself with its poor coverage.

CBS the Best: CBS was the network most likely to address or promote personal responsibility and also had eight stories promoting savings. The "Evening News" also portrayed fewer people as victims than the other networks.

I am very glad to see this. I've been wondering, as news of banking write downs becomes more common, when someone would talk about the fact that these people (the borrowers) should have known what they were getting into. The fact that they cannot now pay their inflated mortgage payments is their problem alone, not the banks' and most certainly not the taxpayers'.