A Phil Hall Op-Ed: Silly me, I thought that “Saturday Night Live” was the only stale survivor from distant generations still wasting time and energy on the television schedule. But then I watched Sunday’s segment of “60 Minutes” on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and I was forced to admit there is another show that wore out its welcome decades ago and exists today as a pale shadow of its former self.
“60 Minutes” is produced by CBS News, which has made no secret of its hostility to the Trump administration – though, in fairness, I must say that Vice President JD Vance’s fact-checking of CBS News’ cluelessly obnoxious Margaret Brennan was funnier than anything “Saturday Night Live” has offered in the past 12 months. The latest assault by this news organization involved the administration’s targeting of the CFPB, which featured broad assumptions, broader omissions and a peculiar need to embarrass members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who are auditing the CFPB’s operations.
The segment began with longtime host Leslie Stahl introducing former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra by noting he was fired by President Trump. Stahl conveniently forgot to mention that Chopra replaced Kathy Kraninger, who was fired by President Biden – there’s nothing unusual with a president exercising his right to remove his predecessor’s appointments. Stahl never mentioned that Jonathan McKernan, a former director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, was named by Trump as the agency’s next director.
Chopra insisted that it was “suspicious” that the administration is taking aim at the agency, insinuating that the companies regulated by the CFPB want it to fail.
“They would want a situation where the agency is a lapdog rather than a watchdog,” Chopra claimed.
Stahl later claimed to be offering “rare, verified pictures of three team members” from DOGE entering the CFPB building – we see the same brief video clip multiple times. The 83-year-old Stahl repeatedly referred to the DOGE crew as “young men” and cackled like a hen when now-fired CFPB attorney Hanna Hickman described the DOGE staffers as “college dropouts.” Obviously, Stahl never reads CBSNews.com, which has a fun list of high-profile college dropouts – many of whom were featured on her show.
Stahl’s report tried to give the impression that the DOGE staffers have the potential to misuse confidential data from the CFPB’s files in nefarious and potentially criminal ways, while DOGE chieftain Elon Musk could have a personal interest in sinking the CFPB because of his plans to move into the digital payments space.
“He’s potentially able to gain access to files of his competitors like Venmo and Cash App,” exclaimed Hickman. “He is able to take out the regulator that would’ve been the watchdog for his company. I guess it’s easier to fire us than it is to beat us in court.”
Hickman and Stahl seemed ignorant to the fact that Musk is partnering with Visa on this endeavor. The companies would need to jump through multiple regulatory hoops in the US and even more abroad before their service could go live – dismantling the CFPB would not give them a greenlight to proceed without caution.
The “60 Minutes” segment has more fearmongering by other ex-CFPB bureaucrats that is too dumb to repeat, but it does offer one sliver of honesty. Norbert Michel, vice president and director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, calmly reminded Stahl that “consumer protection existed long before we had a CFPB. And if we got rid of it and put everything back to the way that it was, we would still have consumer protection.”
When a seemingly dumbfounded Stahl asked how that was possible, Michel replied the CFPB’s functions could be given to the Federal Trade Commission. As Michel noted, “Their motto is literally on the website: Protecting America’s Consumers.”
Gee, how did that flash of truth wind up on “60 Minutes”?
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at phil@wrenews.com.
It’s refreshing to read an article calling out traditional media for their political bias. Hopefully this trend continues. Nicely done.
I find it humorous that in dissing the CFPB you say there are backup agencies in place that make it redundant. What you fail to say is that Musk/Trump can dismantle them, as well.
Thank you for pointing out the nonsense of the 60 minute episode on CFPB. It was obviously biased. Appreciated your article.
I watched it. It was so biased that I decided I would never watch that program again. It was definitely one sided. And that last comment about Trump against Ukraine was way out of taste.
Great article… thanks for your thorough research and well written article.
I wonder how old this agency is. I am sure this was a rather recent creation spear headed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. In the run up to her failed presidential campaign. It essentially fines businesses. The money goes to the general fund. Where it’s free money for the political class to play with.