Errors, corrections and clarifications, NPR

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[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

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?

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

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.)

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.

From: Greg Fisher, creditscoring.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 2:41 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: credit score, employers, NPR, Tell Me More

A headline on your web site is, “Low Credit Scores Affect Job Applicants.”

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?

Errors and corrections, CBS News

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Sumner Redstone published, “The magazine marked the September 11, 2011 terror attacks with Art Spiegelman’s vivid black-on-black portrait of the Twin Towers… Credit: The New Yorker”

The attacks occured in 2001, not 2011.

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 9:28 AM
To: Sumner Redstone, CBS, National Amusements (via Rachel Lulay)
Cc: Rand Morrison, executive producer, CBS News Sunday Morning, National Amusements; David Rhodes, president, CBS News, national Amusements (via S. McNair)
Subject: correction, 9/11, CBS News Sunday Morning, National Amusements

This is an experiment to determine how few characters it takes to elicit a correction and how long it takes for that change to occur.

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

Source changed his story

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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 10:55 AM
To: Thomas S. Monson, president, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (via L. Kirkland); Henry B. Eyring, first counselor, First Presidency, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor, First Presidency, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Christopher M. Lee, EVP and publisher, DeseretNews.com, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Chris Higbee, general manager, DeseretNews.com, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ; Rick Hall, managing editor, Deseret News, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Lois M. Collins, reporter and columnist, Deseret News, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Clark Gilbert, president and CEO, Deseret News Publishing Company and Deseret Digital Media, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Mary McConnell, member, Editorial Advisory Board, Deseret News, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Cc: Blaze Bullock, business reporter, Deseret News, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints II

Please correct your stories.

Employers do not use credit scores (click on “Bad credit doesn’t impact candidates getting hired”).

News Corporation changed its sentence referring to the Society for Human Resource Management (replacing the word scores with reports), leaving you twisting in the wind.

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

From: NewsMedia
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 5:46 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Subject: Automatic reply: credit score, employers, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Thank you for your email. News media requests received through this contact form are forwarded to media relations staff. Please be aware that the contact information provided on MormonNewsroom.org is for news media only. We are unable to address or respond to other inquiries through this site.

To provide general feedback, please use this link or go to MormonNewsroom.org and click on “Feedback.”

[previous message]

What does it take to get a media correction or clarification?

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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 5:46 PM
To: Thomas S. Monson, president, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (via L. Kirkland)
Cc: Blaze Bullock, business reporter, Deseret News, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Subject: credit score, employers, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

This is an experiment to determine how few characters it takes to elicit a correction or clarification and how long it takes for the change to occur.

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

Chicago Tribune, errors and corrections

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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 11:11 AM
To: Sam Zell, Tribune Company; Gerould W. Kern, editor, Chicago Tribune; Jane Hirt, managing editor, Chicago Tribune; Mary Elson, managing editor, Tribune Media Services
Cc: Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chairman, Executive Committee, editor-in-chief, U.S. News & World Report (via Liz Putze); Daniel Bortz, reporter/editor, Personal Finance, U.S. News & World Report
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, U.S. News, Chicago Tribune

See this message and your response at https://www.pagea2.com/chicago-tribune-errors-and-corrections/.

You published a U.S. News & World Report item that states, “Even job applicants can have their credit scores pulled by employers, as a means of determining if they’ll be a risky hire for the company.”

On the contrary, your website also states: “Similar to the reports that a consumer can obtain for free each year through credit-reporting agencies, employers receive a report that lists debt. The reports do not, however, give an applicant’s credit score.”

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

U.S. News & World Report, errors and corrections

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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 4:40 PM
To: Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chairman, Executive Committee, editor-in-chief, U.S. News & World Report (via Liz Putze)
Cc: Daniel Bortz, reporter/editor, Personal Finance, U.S. News & World Report
Subject: credit score, employers, U.S. News

See this message and your response at https://www.pagea2.com/u-s-news-world-report-errors-and-corrections/.

You published, “Even job applicants can have their credit scores pulled by employers, as a means of determining if they’ll be a risky hire for the company.”

That page contains advertisements while dispensing false information.

On the other hand, you also published: “Employers can buy a ‘consumer report’ from a credit reporting agency. The report doesn’t include your credit score, but does include a lot of information you wouldn’t expect: your driving and criminal records, as well as interviews with your family, friends, neighbors and known associates.”

And, you even published this statement you attribute to a consumer reporting agency: “To clarify, TransUnion does not provide a credit score for employment screening purposes.”

Ironically, even is a word often associated with reports of employers using credit scores.

Who is your source?

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

 

Consumers Union, Microsoft, viral myth and error

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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 11:35 AM
To: Stacy Johnson, CPA, executive producer, publisher, president, journalist, Money Talks News
Cc: Walter D. Bristol, chairman, Consumer Reports, Consumers Union; Amanda Walker, Consumer Reports senior project editor, Consumers Union; Margaret Shader, Web associate editor, Consumer Reports, Consumers Union; Communications, Consumers Union; James A. Guest, president, CEO, consumer Reports, Consumers Union; K. James Yager, CEO, director, Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC; Miranda Marquit, staff writer, Moolanomy; Miranda Marquit, personal finance advice blogger, Family Money, Equifax; Amey Stone, deputy managing editor, MSN Money, Microsoft; Richard Jenkins, MSN Money, Microsoft; MSN Money editors, Microsoft; Christopher Oster, managing editor, MSN Money, Microsoft
Subject: RE: whistle stop, Consumers Union, Barrington Broadcasting, Money Talks News, MSN Money, viral

See this message and your response at https://www.pagea2.com/tag/microsoft/.

You appear to be part of a chain of sources for a myth and error gone viral.

Your video—to which a Barrington Broadcasting story appears to refer—now appears on Microsoft’s MSN Money.  The MSN article that surrounds it, “Why non-FICO credit scores aren’t worth buying” (elsewhere titled, “Don’t Buy Non-FICO Credit Scores”) is written by a blogger who actually works with Equifax, one of only two companies who sell the FICO credit score to consumers.

In the video (in which you mention Consumers Union), you state, “Your credit score is obviously important if you’re borrowing money, but many employers also look at scores when hiring.”

Employers do not use credit scores.

At the moment, your piece (titled “Time for free credit scores”) is the featured video on the MSN Money page, “Video tips: Credit scores, credit reports – MSN Money.”  The page says:

The world of credit has seen dramatic changes recently. While interest rates are low, lending standards are higher. Having a high credit rating is more important than ever, yet many people are buried in debt and hobbled by bad credit.

Good thing you’ve found MSN Money’s archive of videos about credit scores. How often should you request your credit reports and monitor your credit scores? How can you raise your credit scores? What are FICO scores?

Your video also appears (with advertisements) on your website, Money Talks News.  On the page containing the video, you exaggerate: “It’s no exaggeration to say your credit score can change your life. This single number can determine whether you get a job or own a home.”

Who told you that?

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

 

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 2:34 PM
To: K. James Yager, CEO, director, Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC
Cc: Walter D. Bristol, chairman, Consumer Reports, Consumers Union; Amanda Walker, Consumer Reports senior project editor, Consumers Union; Communications, Consumers Union; James A. Guest, president, CEO, consumer Reports, Consumers Union
Subject: Whistle-Stop, Consumers Union, Barrington Broadcasting, Who told you that?

With incredulity, you published: “Your credit score is obviously important if you’re borrowing money. But many employers also look at scores when hiring.”

At the bottom of that story is a link to the “Consumers Union website,” however, the Consumers Union page at the link address does not support your statement; it does not mention employers.

On a whistle-stop tour this month, I visited Consumer Reports.  The person with that organization I spoke to there wrote:

Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 1:34 PM
To: greg@creditscoring.com
Subject: Follow up to your visit earlier today

Hello Greg,

After your visit, I conferred with Mandy Walker and our experts over at Consumers Union (the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports), and we’ve since updated Mandy’s quote in my blog to more accurately reflect the updated language now found at the website cited.

I just wanted to thank you for bringing this to my attention, and apologize for the communication disconnect that occurred on this end between Consumers Union and Consumer Reports, which meant the update was not made to the blog post sooner.

Again, thanks for your sharp eye and follow through,
[name]

(Despite that, still, another Consumers Union document states, inaccurately, “Without a Disaster Information Shield, FICO scoring models could pose an affirmative barrier to the efforts of disaster victims to regain, and maintain, financial stability, access reasonably priced credit, and even regain employment.”)

Your page even contains advertisements while misinforming readers by saying that employers use credit scores.

Who told you that?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

 

Tulsa World, Samsung Galaxy Note screen size

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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 10:00 AM
To: Robert E. Lorton, chairman, World Publishing Co. (via S. Ellerbach)
Subject: Tulsa World, Samsung Galaxy Note screen size

See this message and your response at https://www.pagea2.com/tag/tulsa-world/.

You published: “Let’s go ahead and get this out of our systems – the Samsung Galaxy Note is gigantic… [w]ith a 5.1-inch screen, it’s bigger than any smartphone I’ve ever seen.”

The manufacturer states that the screen size of the device is 5.3 inches, not 5.1.

How did you determine the screen size?

Where are your corrections?

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