CBS News despite being owned by large conglomerate company, Viacom, often takes a hard line against business. Here you'll find lop-sided reports which favor the critics of various industries and assume that the companies under fire don't care about their customers.

This report from Bill Whitaker features a woman whose says her auto insurance rates went up when she missed two credit card payments in the aftermath of her daughter's death six years ago. Not mentioned is the size of her unpaid bills, or when her rates rose. Whitaker also doesn't allow a representative from her company, or any other company, to respond the woman's charges (perhaps they increased for some other reason). Whitaker then allows a representative from an insurance association 44 words to counter the earlier part of the piece, plus the words of a critic of the industry and the testimony of an agent who says insurers charge lower-income people more, both of whom follow him. At the end, Whitaker commends bills to ban the practice of credit scoring:
DAN RATHER: Consumers in the market for car insurance assume the company will take into account their driving record but some insurers are a lot more interested in another record as Bill Whittaker reports in CBS's Friday Consumer Alert.
(Graphic on screen: Image of a green CBS eyemark surrounded by dollar signs. The eye emanates a large green dollar sign which pulsates in a sonar-like fashion. Caption: Friday CONSUMER ALERT)
BILL WHITAKER: Kathryn Perry has a stellar driving history.
KATHRYN PERRY (Insurance Customer): I'm a really good driver.
WHITAKER: Twenty-five years with no accidents, no tickets, mostly driving around her small Texas town. So imagine her shock when her car insurance jumped from $437 a year to--
PERRY: --$3,000.
WHITAKER: Almost 600% higher.
(Graphic on screen:
$3,000
600% HIGHER)
PERRY: I just couldn't believe it. Because I have a perfect driving record.
WHITAKER: But her driving record wasn't the issue. It was her credit record. Six years ago, when her daughter Noelle [ph] was murdered, Perry missed 2 credit card payments.
PERRY: We had, you know, police investigations and just a lot of things were going on plus I was devastated.
WHITAKER: And that was the reason your insurance rate goes up?
PERRY: Yes (shakes head). The only reason.
WHITAKER: Using your credit history to determine your insurance risk, or how much you pay in premiums is a widespread practice. Ninety percent of insurance companies do it.
(Graphic on screen:
CREDIT SCORING
Cars driving on freeway, changes to dollar bills drifting across background. Two arrows with numbers inside pointing downward and upward, labeled SCORE and COST respectively.)
It's called credit scoring and the worse you score, the more you'll pay for insurance, even if you've never had an accident or suffered a loss to your home. What does that have to do with your insurance? The insurance industry says your credit history is key:
DONALD HANSON (National Association of Independent Insurers): Research indicates that people who manage their personal finances responsibly tend to manage other important aspects of their life with that same level of responsibility. And that would include being responsible behind the wheel of their car or being responsible in maintaining their home.
BIRNY BIRNBAUM (Consumer Advocate): It doesn't make any sense at all.
WHITAKER: Consumer advocate Birny Birnbaum is a former associate insurance commissioner for the state of Texas.
BIRNY BIRNBAUM: They say, 'Oh, you know, it's clear that if you're a good financial manager you'll have a good credit score. Then you'll have fewer accidents.' It's not true.
WHITAKER: He says it favors the rich with unblemished records.
BIRNBAUM: So if your income is under, 10,000 you're ten times more likely to have a delinquency on your credit report.
WHITAKER: Hmmm.
Even insurance agents meeting in Austin see a problem.
BILL MURPHY (Independent Insurance Agent): When we credit score the average working-class customer that we deal with, inevitably the rates go up significantly.
(Graphic onscreen:
CREDIT SCORING LEGISLATION
Map of United States with certain states raised in three-dimensional format.
Caption: Banned in Hawaii and Maryland)
WHITAKER: Fed up consumers in Texas and 30 other states, have been pressing legislators to curb credit scoring. Two states have banned it.
PERRY: I just felt like they were kicking me when I was down.
WHITAKER: Now, more and more consumers are kicking back. Bill Whitaker, CBS News, Austin, Texas.
--Dan Rather and Bill Whitaker on the CBS Evening News, September 20, 2002. print_file('footer'); ?>