Month: May 2012

Evidence that Rupert Murdoch is unfit

So, the problem is this: Mass media have repeated this myth so long and so loud that it will never go away. In statehouses, there has even been legislation passed and signed into law by the snookered to outlaw the notion behind the myth– even though the notion is not true. Meanwhile, even as it tries to own up to its errors, the (mis)information machine just keeps on churning, out of control.

The myth is that employers use c—-t s—-s (you almost even don’t want to say the words for fear of fueling the fire).

Employers do not do it. They can’t.  They cannot.  They can’t even GET c—-t s—-s.

Take the case of Rupert Murdoch, a man who, certainly, has taken his lumps, recently.  British legislators even went as far as to declare him “not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”  And, as you can see here, when it comes to the issue about s—-s, he can’t get it right.  Its like he’s arguing with himself.

For example, first, one of Murdoch’s anchors–who (NSFW) is a lawyer–does does a whole bit with some guy with the title of Doctor.  For some real fun, see Murdoch’s copy change after creditscoring.com’s email: the word s—-s changed to reports (but not before at least one sucker copied it (why the myth will not die)). Got the picture?  A doctor and a lawyer (indeed, she reminds us of that right in the video).



Then, just days later, a host on another Murdoch network has credit report and c—-t s—-e expert John Ulzheimer on her show.  These two (mere laymen) know the truth and go over the thing again for the umpteenth time: employers do not use [you know what].

  

How do you get in touch with this guy Murdoch–or Oprah, or the head of NBC?  Or, are they just unreachable, out of touch and unfit?

Jean Chatzky’s dilemma

Employers do not use credit scores.  Can’t even get ’em.

The second tab after “Home/Blog” on JeanChatzy.com is “Score Builder.”  The landing page says, “Better credit in 120 days, powered by Smart Credit.”

On Oprah.com as she explained the number that she thinks “is widely considered to be a measure of how responsible a human being you are,” Jean Chatzky said, “You may even have an easier time getting a job as many employers these days are checking out credit scores because they want to hire responsible employees.”

Then she plugs Credit.com and CreditKarma.

[Wonks: She also gives the score scale as 350-850, but let’s not quibble over that– boring.]

Meanwhile, over at NBC, (where it counts, apparently), Chatzky finally comes to terms with her misinformation.  In a segment for NBC’s Today, she said (finally):

It’s a really good question, and we did get a lot of response to that thought that employers are checking credit histories.  About 16% of them actually are.  What they’re not seeing is your credit score.  They’re seeing your credit report.

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

Inexplicably, however, her blog post (“Posted by Jean”) about that appearance states, “On Today’s Money 911 we talked about what employers that check credit scores are looking for and gave tips for finding a job over 60.”

Previously, as Matt Lauer did the deed (as many do in their introductions to the topic) Chatzky remained silent. (2:09)

Poor Oprah (dot com).

Oprah was unavailable (but the train station never looked better).

So, what happens, now?

Average credit scores by state

Recently, Fair Isaac (FICO) asked the provocative question, “How does your #FICO Score compare to the rest of the US?”

The accompanying link leads a new homepage at the company’s consumer-oriented website, myFICO.com.  It features an interactive map of the United States on which you can see a national average credit score (692) and averages for individual states.  The state with the highest average credit score in the country is North Dakota, at 720.

The map below shows the above average states in green, and the below average states in white.

US states with above average credit scores

The state-by-state breakdown is a departure for FICO, who has never answered the same type of illustration published years ago by national consumer reporting agency and competitor Experian.  Unfortunately the basis for the Experian map was the infamous Fake-O score, the PLUS score.  But despite that, let’s face it:  It was, frankly, full of Fake-O FICO funky fun.  Fair Isaac gets that.

Today, for its part, Experian seems to have moved on to yet another gambit: The highly-touted (media are suckers for anything new), VantageScore.  NationalScoreIndex.com (the address that previously hosted the map) now forwards to something called Live Credit Smart (click on “The State of Credit” on the left menu).  The interactive PLUS score map (similar to FICO’s) that was on the homepage at NationalScoreIndex.com is now at http://www.nationalscoreindex.com/USScore.aspx (if you care).

Confused about which score is relevant?  You should be.  In 2008, FICO told creditscoring.com that the TransUnion version sold on myFICO.com is FICO Risk Score, Classic 98 which is not the model mentioned in the Fannie Mae lending guidelines (section B3-5.1-01 (p. 427, pdf p. 455)).  On the other hand, the Equifax score at myFICO is, indeed, the same score mentioned by Fannie.  But, the one thing that the score used for mortgage lending or even the myFICO.com score is not is something called “FICO 8.”  Fair Isaac states, “When a significant number of lenders have upgraded, we will work with the credit reporting agencies to provide FICO 8 scores to consumers here on myFICO.”

Yet, FICO 8 is the score model in countless blog posts by FICO personnel as if it is significant.  They have not mentioned the shiny new map.  Yesterday’s commentary about the distribution of consumers by score doesn’t even bring it up.

It is anybody’s guess which score model is represented in the US state map.  And it used to be all about the median not the mean (“average”).  And there is a new AOR (with the typical, cliché wordplay right in the press release title).  And a new CEO, a board member.  And no coming to terms with the employers thing even as the rest of the world is enlightened (albeit with, in one case, a strange, contradictory result).  Still, some keep the myth going.

Wonks, you have got to love this.  Stay tuned.