[next correspondence]

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 1:29 PM
To: Gary Knell, president and CEO, NPR; NPR Corrections
Cc: Michel Martin, host, Tell Me More, NPR; Edward Schumacher-Matos, ombudsman, NPR; Ombudsman, NPR
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, NPR, Tell Me More, the sooner the better, 2009-2012

Despite our correspondence, you published an item dated yesterday in which Alvin Hall states, “In order to get through the first cut, you need to make sure that your credit report and credit score are good just in case your employer checks them.”

Further, your 2009 headline is still, “Low Credit Scores Affect Job Applicants.”

You told me that I could start with an article by the New York Times, however, before giving you a chance to tell me what to end with, I disproved that the survey to which the newspaper referred mentions credit scores.

Are you going to correct your headline, or not?

–
Greg Fisher
Page A2
pagea2.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

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From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 5:19 PM
To: Michel Martin, NPR
Cc: Vivian Schiller, NPR; Brian Duffy, NPR; David Sweeney, NPR; Kinsey Wilson, NPR; Lisa Shepard, NPR; Corrections, NPR; Ombudsman, NPR; Cooperhall Press; Vicki McIvor, Take 3 Management; Valorie Burton; Melissa Sturgis, Random House; Leone Murray, valorieburton.com; Brakkton Booker; NPR; On the Media, WNYC; Bob Garfield, WNYC
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, NPR, Tell Me More

From: Hughes, Jennifer
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 5:04 PM
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III

Hi Greg,

Neither survey discusses credit scores, only credit checks.

Sorry!
Thanks,
Jenny

Jennifer Hughes
Media Affairs Specialist
Society for Human Resource Management

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 4:45 PM
To: Hughes, Jennifer
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III

Thank you.

What are the survey results regarding credit scores (a single number calculated from a person’s credit history), specifically?

Do any of the survey questions use the term “credit score”?

At 11:31 AM 4/9/2009, Hughes, Jennifer wrote:
Hi Greg,

According to SHRM’s 2006 Weapons in the Workplace Survey, 42% of surveyed employers run credit checks on potential employees as part of routine background checks. In SHRM’s 2004 Reference and Background Checking Survey, 19% of surveyed employers said they always used credit checks as a type of information in a background check, 24% sometimes used credit checks, and 18% rarely used credit checks.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Thanks,
Jenny

Jennifer Hughes
Media Affairs Specialist
Society for Human Resource Management 

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 10:39 AM
To: Malveaux, Julie; Harris, Jeanene; Hughes, Jennifer
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III

Do you claim that employers use credit scores?

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From: Michel Martin, NPR
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:48 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, NPR, Tell Me More

you can start with this. the survey cited is on our website now

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/business/07credit.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=credit%20scores%20job%20applicants&st=cse

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From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:30 PM
To: Michel Martin, NPR
Cc: Vivian Schiller, NPR; Brian Duffy, NPR; David Sweeney, NPR; Kinsey Wilson, NPR; Lisa Shepard, NPR; Corrections, NPR; Ombudsman, NPR; Cooperhall Press; Vicki McIvor, Take 3 Management; Valorie Burton; Melissa Sturgis, Random House; Leone Murray, valorieburton.com; Brakkton Booker; NPR; On the Media, WNYC; Bob Garfield, WNYC
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, NPR, Tell Me More, the sooner the better

Regardless of Mr. Hall’s credentials, please address your story before it spreads further.

The consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment screening, and your item has developed a life of its own:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news;_ylt=A0geu.kNxIFKWk4ADCpXNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=credit%20score&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-501
http://twitter.com/home#search?q=Low%20Credit%20Scores%20Affect%20Job%20Applicants
http://digg.com/business_finance/Low_Credit_Scores_Affect_Job_Applicants
http://www.wnyc.org/search/?q=%22low+credit+scores%22&cx=009801551925401469317%3Ak2kdlex-qi4&cof=FORID%3A11#1165
http://www.rocketnews.com/2009/08/low-credit-scores-affect-job-applicants-source-npr/
http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/08/11/low-credit-scores-affect-job-applicants/
http://theloop21.com/news/low-credit-scores-affect-job-applicants

(et al.)

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From: Michel Martin, NPR
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 2:48 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Cc: Ombudsman
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, NPR, Tell Me More

Mr. Fisher–we are happy to answer this question in detail when we finish production for today’s program. But, as you pointed out, Alvin Hall is an author and independent consultant and thus is entitled to express his personal opinion about any such matters. He does not work for a credit reporting or scoring entity and is not beholden to  any outside entities.  All due diligence has been applied to his associations.

The accompanying text includes, “Tell Me More financial contributor Alvin Hall and life coach Valorie Burton give advice on what to do in case you are looking for work with a less than stellar credit score.”

Your guest, independent financial expert Alvin Hall, said:

“If we are all subject to the blanket agreement – if somebody were able to go in and analyze who got the jobs based on their credit histories, then we’d be able to see if, indeed, there was a trend.  And I suspect there would be.  You find that racial minorities have a worse credit rating than whites.  So, therefore, automatically, we’re in a disporportionate area of the negative.  Therefore, I can also see that a person would look at that, and you find that more blacks or more hispanics were discriminated against in the job search.  But we’ll never know that because the information is not available.”

What is a credit rating?

Who is your source regarding how credit scores affect job applicants?