CBS Finds Unique Culprit in Subprime Hardship Story – Race

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Fall behind on your mortgage? These days it's anyone's fault but your own according to the mainstream media.

The March 9 "CBS Evening News" found another way to fault home lenders instead of one borrower who took on an ill-planned mortgage that was more than he could pay: the race card.

"[Michael] Wiggins, a city bus driver, was one of millions of Americans caught in the subprime mortgage crisis," CBS correspondent Randall Pinkston said. "His mortgage lenders' network loan gave him an 11-percent interest rate with a payment of $3,900 a month. But that jumped to $4,200 a month because of delinquency fees and penalties. Knowing he was sinking fast, Wiggins looked for refinancing at commercial banks."

This time, instead of blaming the borrower who got in over his head, Pinkston played the race card and suggested the color of Wiggins' skin was to blame for the type of mortgage the bank sold him.

"Some community bankers believe there is a racial component to the subprime mortgage crisis, a belief supported by the Federal Reserve report which shows that 55 percent of black borrowers versus 17 percent of whites were steered to subprime loans, even when they qualified for lower interest rates," Pinkston said

Hard-luck mortgage stories that suggest the borrower should be held responsible for taking on more than he or she could afford are few and far between. Instead, the media focus heavily on worst-case scenarios, using extreme situations to make businesses - in this case mortgage lenders - look bad.