Pub. 1 2018-2019 |Issue 2

8 Protection Products A ccording to NPR, auto dealers have been lobbying to change the Military Lending Act (MLA). What is the MLA? It has one purpose: protecting service members from financial products and loans that are predatory, such as selling overpriced gap in- surance and rolling the cost of the insurance into the auto loan. NPR ran a negative online story written by Chris Arnold about the proposed changes on August 13, 2018. Jared Allen, the NADA Senior Direc- tor of Media Relations, responded with his own article two days later, on August 15, 2018, and published it on the NADA website. What is Jared Allen’s take? Chris Arnold got the story wrong. How wrong? According to Jared Allen, the report was “grossly inaccurate, misleading and unethical.” The second paragraph of the story by Chris Arnold says the White House has suggested changes to the MLA that would make it easier for people to take advantage of service members, and also that the administration wants to stop enforcing the MLA. In the fourth paragraph of the NPR article, Chris Arnold goes on to quote a law professor at the University of Utah named Christopher Peterson who says he has reviewed proposal stage documents detailing what the White House is willing to do in response. The clear implication is that NADA and GAPA also know about, have seen, and are talking about whatever information these documents contain. That is news to NADA and GAPA, neither of which organizations have any access to White House documents about the proposed changes. Chris Arnold conducted a 60-minute recorded interview with NADA and also participated in an exchange of emails before the interview but never mentioned them. Information from Christopher Peterson is contained in paragraphs four through nine and paragraphs 11 and 12. He accuses auto dealers of being dishonest in their dealings with service members; if he offered any proof about these accusations to Chris Arnold, the evidence did not make it into the article. What’s in paragraph 10? That paragraph quotes Paul Metrey, who acts as vice president of regulatory affiars and chief regulatory counsel for VOLUNTARY