This page is a continuation of social media correspondence with the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cox Enterprises, Inc. While the utility of messages constrained to 140 characters is limited, the public nature of the network on which the the correspondence took place shows, at least, its efficacy potential to get somebody's attention. An attempt to similarly engage a different company, a newspaper named the New York Times, was met with the "high volume" (like calling customer service) excuse. Meanwhile, the Times (and the Journal-Constitution (see below)) maintains false reports of American history.

Timeline

2008. The three main national consumer reporting agencies all state, emphatically, that they do not provide credit scores for employment purposes. One agency maintains headquarters in Atlanta.

May 11, 2010. An AJC writer errs, furthering the employers-use-credit-scores myth. creditscoring.com tries to warn the media company.

May 25, 2010. Justly defying the words of a Georgia U.S. senator, another reporter in the same organization writes (directly adjacent to a quote of the legislator), "Employers often use credit reports, but do not have access to credit scores."

creditscoring.com calls the inaccuracy in the May 11 story a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2011. Multiple testimonies repeating the myth fuel creation of law.

July 9. Atlanta Journal-Constitution states, inaccurately, "Some employers factor credit scores into hiring decisions."

Yesterday, 7 a.m. creditscoring.com engages Cox Enterprises, parent of the AJC.

To its credit, Cox replies, but only to attempt to send creditscoring.com back down its chain of command to communicate with the writer.

creditscoring.com points out that that the myth exists elsewhere in the Cox media empire, and so, talking to the person in charge of it all is the appropriate action.

creditscoring.com asks the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who is ultimately responsible for information published by that organization.

P.M. After claiming responsibility for AJC content (but not stating the ultimate responsible party), the editor says, "I've asked this blogger to contact you," again, apparently, sending the messenger back to an underling.

Today, 1 p.m. EDT. creditscoring.com, the Credit Scoring Site, publishes this page.

More errors

Here are several errors by Cox, some regarding fundamental U.S. history:

  • A very important AJC columnist/namedropper: "As I’ve noted before, when I had the chance to discuss the issue with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, neither could offer even the slightest idea for how to solve the problem without a mandate."

    Of course, while a fine man, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not the U.S. Senate majority leader (and never has been).

  • Video caption: "US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's full CPAC Speech" (see explanation in preceding item)

  • Social science fiction by a Monster.com contributing writer: "On the other hand, assume a company will do a thorough background check on you. That means your credit score and even those benign photos of you on Facebook are easily accessible, and could be used against you."

    Not true. Employers do not use credit scores.

Because of its particular phenomenon, an item by Cox worthy of special mention appears on something called the California Auto Insurance Blog. The original Journal-Constitution report states, "Scores can be a factor in credit card and mortgage rates and even in employment."

The same thing happened to the New York Times dating disaster Christmas article. This urban legend may never die.

The instant story, indexed by news search engines (even though it is not news), remains uncorrected (not to mention amplified).

[See updates on this topic under "cox" in conglomerates.]