USA TODAY story on employers and credit scores, 8/11/2003

Gannett outlet fails to provide its source, saying it happened too long ago

Also, see

Influence > Media > Conglomerates > Gannett > USA TODAY, August 11, 2003

3/6/2010

Some information etched into the walls of the internet may never go away, and worse, you may never know who said it. Here is an example of that searchable, indexed folklore available to 6 billion people that seems to be getting worse.

From: creditscoring.com
To: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
Subject: credit score, employers
Sent: April 5, 2009

You wrote, "Landlords, auto lenders and even employers may look at your credit score."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2003-08-11-ym_x.htm

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

From: creditscoring.com
To: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
Subject: Re: credit score, employers II
Sent: April 7, 2009

Please reply.

Maybe the accuracy police can help.

To: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
From: creditscoring.com
Subject: Re: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 8, 2009
Cc: USA TODAY standards editor Brent Jones

Please reply.

It worked!

From: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 9, 2009

According to the Society on Human Resource Management, 42% of employers do credit checks on job applicants.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-03-05-economy-credit-scores_N.htm

Sandra Block
Personal Finance Reporter
USA TODAY
You can find my stories and columns at:
http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=561
Follow me at:
http://twitter.com/sandyblock

Darn.

To: J. Malveaux, J. Harris, Jennifer Hughes; SHRM
From: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: Sent: April 9, 2009

Do you claim that employers use credit scores?

(copy of email correspondence with USA TODAY)

Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
From: Jennifer Hughes, SHRM
To: creditscoring.com
Sent: April 9, 2009

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
[address]
Phone: [number]
E-mail: [email address]
www.shrm.org

HR Leadership for the New Economy. Only at the SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition.
June 28 � July 1, 2009 | New Orleans, La.
Find out more at www.shrm.org/conferences/annual.

Just one clarification:

To: Jennifer Hughes, SHRM
From: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 9, 2009

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"?

Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
From: Jennifer Hughes, SHRM
To: creditscoring.com

Hi Greg,

Neither survey discusses credit scores, only credit checks.

Sorry!

Thanks,

Jenny

Sorry? Sorry?

Ha-ha! Don't be sorry. Watch this!

To: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
From: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 9, 2009

What correction will you make?

(copy of email correspondence with SHRM)

From: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 9, 2009, 5:19 PM

Let me check with my editors, thanks.

From: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 9, 2009, 5:45 PM

I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were referring to a story from five years ago. I don't know the original source material for that column. We get a lot of press releases.

Curses. Foiled again!

Gannett wins because rules are rules: If a story is over 5 years old, you can leave it on your server for everybody to read for the rest of time— even if you can't cite your sources.

Hey, wait a minute— ah-HA!

To: Sandra Block, USA TODAY
From: "creditscoring.com"
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Sent: April 9, 2009

Last month's story to which you referred, at http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-03-05-economy-credit-scores_N.htm, makes the same assumption:

"And if scores can drop even if consumers do nothing wrong, they say, it raises the question of whether there's a flaw in the credit scoring formulas relied upon by the nation's lenders, insurers, and increasingly employers and landlords."

Will you request that the writer and your editors identify the sources?

Watch what happened with that story, and this one at another Gannett outlet.