Post

Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

mm yes more of that populism I've heard so much about

The New York Times@nytimes.com

The Senate voted Thursday to strike down a rule capping most bank overdraft fees at $5, a measure adopted late last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that had been expected to save Americans billions of dollars per year.

nytimes.comSenate Overturns Rule Limiting Bank Overdraft Fees to $5Lawmakers voted to invalidate a rule adopted last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It now moves to the House.
Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

as always the NYT does a great job "both sidesing" the banking industry's corrupt dismantling of a popular rule preventing price gouging, leaving it open to reader interpretation as to whether fucking consumers over at scale is bad

22 reposts92 likes

Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

this may come as a surprise but journalism doesn't have to involve letting paid liars for companies with long, rich histories of fraud blow smoke up everybody's ass with obviously false claims

Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

Like the times could just quote a respected, objective academic with decades of expertise on this subject who will clearly tell you modern banks are notoriously fucking bad and the rule was popular and good

Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

They could also add a paragraph about how this is obviously glorified corruption in an era of faux-populism as useful context, but that might upset ownership or a source and then where would you be

Karl Bode
@karlbode.com

They could also reiterate that bogging already struggling consumers down with predatory banking fees is exclusively a (very unpopular) Republican agenda and policy item, but then a Republican might get mad at them

brainbolt.bsky.social
@brainbolt.bsky.social

Coincidentally, I just ran across the perfect H. L. Mencken quote: "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed – everything else is public relations." So, yeah, I’m seeing a lot of PR these days.