The girl doesn't blame her mother, she blames the University and the bank. There is NO PLACE in the article where she blames herself.
It's open for interpretation, true. But when the interviewer asks the mother about her decision making and the mother says she feels guilty for having been naive, the daughter then says it's not her mother's fault. Which I interpret as an admission that then the blame, or a part of it anyway, is hers, but I can see how you'd interpret it differently. It's hard to say with the article just containing that one direct quote from the daughter.
The other quotes that you took out of context do not refer to her personal choices, but rather, form part of the article's indictment of the debt - the decisions were based more on "emotion than reason" because the bank was "gouging" her and the university was just taking her money.
Er, I hate to break it to you, but I didn't take anything "out of context", and those other quotes weren't ambiguous. If an article states that someone makes a borrowing decision "based more on emotion than reason", you'd have to twist it a lot indeed to deny that the article criticizes that person. Same with the "blind faith". I can see why you'd think this article places too much blame on the university and the banks and too little on the students, but you're simply wrong when you say that no blame is placed on this girl and her mother at all.
For the record, columns are articles. They just don't need to aspire to a lack of bias.
I made that remark because of the title of your post, suggesting that you blame the NYT for it. I'd say the distinction between a column and a regular article is fairly essential when you're assigning blame for a stupid article - in the case of a regular article, the newspaper has to carry at least a good part of the blame, whereas with a column, that's not really the case.
One of the stupidest New York Times articles I've ever read
30/05/2010 03:17:03 PM
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Added to which she sounds like a spoiled brat
30/05/2010 03:46:06 PM
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It's a column, not a real article... and it's more critical than you suggest.
30/05/2010 04:02:26 PM
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No it isn't.
30/05/2010 04:24:20 PM
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Re: No it isn't.
30/05/2010 04:56:42 PM
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Šertam aštakun
31/05/2010 04:14:28 AM
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Here's the saddest part ...
30/05/2010 06:10:48 PM
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Very bad life planning, and sadly, it's not an isolated case.
31/05/2010 04:01:46 AM
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Same. Humanities, while necessary, are something of a luxury given the numbers. *NM*
31/05/2010 07:35:25 AM
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Re: One of the stupidest New York Times articles I've ever read
30/05/2010 11:36:40 PM
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Don't get me started on the "everyone should go to college" mantra
31/05/2010 04:07:34 AM
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Re: Don't get me started on the "everyone should go to college" mantra
31/05/2010 04:23:54 AM
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I don't see the point in a humanities major if you aren't planning to get more than a bachelor's.
31/05/2010 07:41:40 AM
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I have a BA in English Literature.
31/05/2010 11:20:28 AM
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that's fair enough, since that's why you took it
31/05/2010 10:20:36 PM
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Heh.
01/06/2010 09:30:53 AM
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I think you mean "the government acts all brokenhearted about the amount of student debt."
*NM*
01/06/2010 09:38:38 AM
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That's kind of a weak reason, though.
31/05/2010 11:11:49 PM
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I'm pretty sure I didn't use that as my reason...
31/05/2010 11:15:32 PM
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That's true, although I don't know how many jobs that's useful for.
01/06/2010 01:20:29 AM
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That's fine. And I didn't go to Uni to get a job. I went for the education.
01/06/2010 09:29:28 AM
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I want to make clear that I, as a humanities major, really do like the humanities.
01/06/2010 09:37:39 AM
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there is one more group that needs to take some of the blame
31/05/2010 01:58:39 AM
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Re: there is one more group that needs to take some of the blame
31/05/2010 02:39:14 AM
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Forget morale, the entire concept is immoral.
31/05/2010 02:52:08 AM
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Nonsense.
31/05/2010 03:01:32 AM
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that's not what you're talking about though.
31/05/2010 04:40:45 AM
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Korea has that policy and look what a nice place that is...er, wait a minute... *NM*
31/05/2010 06:08:14 AM
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So do many democratic countries across the world. And your point is what? *NM*
31/05/2010 06:36:14 AM
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We can put a man on the moon but looking at job number is too complicated?
31/05/2010 04:03:38 PM
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yeah, i probably would've rethought that physics degree if there were such a program in place
31/05/2010 03:27:14 AM
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Physics degrees have a variety of applications.
31/05/2010 07:02:57 PM
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Re: Physics degrees have a variety of applications.
31/05/2010 07:59:22 PM
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you are near Denver right?
02/06/2010 09:33:06 PM
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at the time i was in wisconsin, never lived in denver before
03/06/2010 02:01:23 AM
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ugh. stupid twat.
31/05/2010 02:21:27 AM
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See, you have a plan.
31/05/2010 04:08:24 AM
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yah. she's a stupid twat. and as you've pointed out, not the only one.
31/05/2010 04:42:20 AM
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What a useless leech.
31/05/2010 02:53:24 AM
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She works for a photographer.
31/05/2010 03:03:44 AM
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