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Fame & Fortune: Filmmaker Danny Schechter
New documentary fires a shot at credit card culture
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Bankrate: It's not surprising that the major financial institutions declined to meet with you.
Schechter: Well, yeah.
There were other films done; "Frontline" and PBS did a
history of credit cards -- I didn't want to repeat that -- and they
gave people somebody from the American Bankers Association who basically
managed to say nothing. I'm not one who believes that journalism
has to be mechanistic, that there are two sides to every story.
You can report on these issues and there is enough compelling information
in the public record. When you know that somebody is going to give
you a line, do you necessarily report it? Look at our news organizations;
they have stopped reporting political conventions. They have come
to the conclusion that these conventions are just TV shows and promotional
events, not really news events, and they made a determination. I
believe they should do the same with presidential press conferences
today. Nothing is ever said at them. These are choices that we make
as journalists.
Bankrate: You mete out equal criticism
to Republicans and Democrats for enacting bankruptcy reform.
Schechter: I made clear
that this was bipartisan. This is something that Democrats are not
happy with because they're being exposed as being part of this problem,
not simply the answer to it. They can't blame it all on Bush. I'm
trying to get at deeper truths here, and I think I do, based on
the reaction of audiences who've seen it. One of the things about
this issue is, people will say, "Well, you think that's bad,
let me tell you about X" and you realize that this resonates
with so many people but it's not perceived as a problem, it's perceived
as a personal failing.
Bankrate:
Declaring bankruptcy or getting in too deep with payday lenders, as the soldiers
in your film do, is one of the last dirty little secrets in American life. Schechter:
Yeah, you don't trade notes with other people. It's like, you fouled-up, basically.
Like my filmmaker friend who went into bankruptcy. It could never happen to him.
This guy had all the angles played. He was cocky, he was sure, he was certain,
and then he got nailed big-time basically because of a confluence of things including
a divorce where he had to disclose all his finances. Suddenly what seemed like
a very secure lifestyle became a very insecure lifestyle. |
