From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 1:56 PM
To: Timothy E. Ryan, publisher, president and chief executive officer, Baltimore Sun, Tribune Co.
Cc: United Press International; Valerie S. Androutsopoulos, principal, Vangel Paper Inc.; Angelos Androutsopoulos, president, Vangel Paper; Julie Bykowicz, reporter, Baltimore Sun, Tribune Co.; Mary Corey, director of content and senior vice president, Baltimore Sun, Tribune Co.; Talk Back, editor, Baltimore Sun, Tribune Co.; Jane Hirt, managing editor, Chicago Tribune; Allison T. Davis, vice president, communications, Equity International
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, Baltimore Sun, Tribune Company, 2011-03-20 II
On your website, ConservativeAmerican writes, “Unless one’s credit score/history is relevant to the job, such as a bank teller or accounting department A/P, employers should be prohibited from checking on one’s credit rating prior to and after hiring.
And, MikeCalo said, “Am I to understand that Ms. Androutsopoulos denied a job to one guy because his credit score was low and she was afraid that he was a security risk, yet she hired a person, who had to declare BANKRUPTCY because of a mortgage, as an administrator??“
Politics R Dumb commented, “A qualified, hard worker should not be denied a job because their spouse was laid off, suffered a debilitating illness or accident or otherwise emergency situations that lowered credit scores.”
Brian writes, “People aren’t being hired because of credit score, age and, because they are already jobless.”
They believe what you published. However, the national consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment purposes. The unique and, indeed, startling thing about your story is that you actually seem to have actually uncovered an actual employer who actually uses actual credit scores for actual employment purposes!
But, I’m betting that you actually didn’t. That is because it would be a violation of the employer’s contract with the consumer reporting agency. And, the reports that employers get do not even include credit scores.
This is not the first time that your company furthered this myth. Last year, Jane Hirt of the Chicago Tribune replied: “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I had not seen previous emails. I will ask that we look into this further and publish a correction if warranted.”
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