Check out Spent looking for change [0] cool documentary on millions of Americans who can't get a bank account. It's completely different from the article and I understand your criticism, just mentioning it because the documentary addresses the reasons a lot of people actually use services like Ace Cash over banks.
Beyond that, there's generally an information deficiency for poor people. I come from a low-income background but we always did really well because on both sides of my family there's a long tradition of higher education. So forms concerning finances, taxes, housing, education etc, wasn't a challenge.
But I can easily see how not everyone is aware of every single value offer by different banks, especially when so many of them have a history of hidden fees and when you're going to places like ACE Cash for your payday loans anyway.
I mean hell my girlfriend for example, did her Masters', bright girl, upper middle class white family... she's missed out on about $8k the past few years because she wasn't aware of all the tax rules. After I talked her through it she's now netting an additional $1.5k per year. If she'd been poor, parents illiterate, didn't know how to use the internet properly to find information, it'd be even worse. I mean I have educated friends who're in their 50s and they just never use the internet to compare pricing or deals. If two banks offered him an account with minimum balances, and he had one before and got fines because he wasn't able to keep a minimum balance, it's entirely expected that he assumes all banks are like that and goes to ACE Cash.
I fully agree with you, doesn't justify the crappy journalism. That's his job, talk to people and verify their claims and report the story. Just trying to contextualise the experiences of people the journalist probably talked to, trying to explain why they're not using banks.
And I think his point is still valid which is that some of the rioting, e.g. breaking into ACE Cash, might be linked to the predatory practices of ACE Cash that the middle class never has to deal with. Which isn't cashing checks (his mistake), but rather shit like payday loans, where a poor person earns enough, but has crappy cash flow, and has the option of payday loans which have ridiculous 5000% or 7000% interest loans on the people that can least afford them. People who put up their car for collateral lose it. And you see people who borrow $300, and end up paying $400 in interest by the time they pay off the $300 principal, when these are the same people that had to take a loan to pay the rent to avoid becoming homeless and can't afford that. In that context he wants to put the riots, which isn't that crazy.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAxL4TB6pmQ