Media Outreach with More to Follow . . .
Just like anything else in life, effort breeds success and just like selling - getting media coverage is all about numbers. The more YOU pitch, the more coverage the issue gets and the more people are exposed to HR3149. In turn more voter and media heat is placed upon Congress. To succeed, we need a lot of heat and a high rate of member participation. This week' sample letter below, as with all letters, is but one perspective. What do we know? The point is to write and a good mix of unique perspectives, stories and approaches is best. Edit our verbiage or write your own and save it somewhere on your computer. Then scroll down to our list of media outlets and send, send, send!
We’re going to be doing tons of media outreach in the coming weeks, perhaps months, so save your letter so you don’t have to recreate the wheel over and over. Keep it simple and easy for you. Let’s get started, we have miles to travel but we've never been more close to our goal than now.
[Sample Letter]
When you include the direct impact on families and potential impact on extended families; no single issue in America cries out more for a solution than workplace discrimination based on credit reports. FICO estimates that 35 percent of Americans have a credit score below 650 which they estimate accounts for 70+ million Americans, but anything under a score of 700 is considered “bad credit.” The real number of Americans with bad credit is closer to 100 million Americans. If these people don’t have a job, they don’t get one and if they have a job it not only jeopardizes them losing it, but it also means that they can’t change jobs for better pay to fix their credit report. It’s like tying someone to a ship anchor then throwing them into the water to see if they can swim. Almost half of the entire U.S. workforce, according to the big three credit bureaus, is no longer trustworthy enough to allow through the front door of any business.
George Orwell’s world of big brother has arrived but it’s not the government that took over, instead a secret FICO software program now literally determines whether you live of die. Who benefits from the practice? The big three credit bureaus, their employees, their stockholders and them alone. Who loses? Everyone else . . . starting with the employers who purchase the worthless measurement tools because millions spent in credit bureau marketing materials have convinced them that a credit report indicates theft and fraud potential. They believe this lie even though, under oath during sworn testimony in Oregon where the practice is now illegal, a VP from TransUnion stated they have zero statistical evidence to validate that someone with bad credit is more prone to steal or commit fraud than anyone else. The one and only piece of documentation to back up their marketing claims is a study that indicates that people who “live beyond their means” are more prone to steal from their employer. Guess who that includes? At least 86 percent of the entire U.S. population . . . little old ladies, police officers, preachers and everyone else that ever bought something they didn’t really need or couldn’t afford. If this is the standard for who can work, only 14 percent of the entire population are trustworthy.
Employers lose out on wonderful highly motivated employees who in most instances after starving are more loyal than their dog at home. (Dogs are actually treated better because they are allowed to eat.) That’s the whole point and why a law to eliminate the practice now in the House of Representative is being so hotly contested by the corporations. This is about submission to the almighty corporation and handing over total control over every aspect of someone’s life just for the right to work. Once they have your credit report the employer knows just how little they can get away with paying (in the rare event someone with bad credit is ever hired). With the worst economy since the Great Depression and more jobs moving to third world countries every day, the corporations are now in the driver’s seat like never before. Bad enough they polluted the entire Gulf coastline and destroyed our economy because of their greed, but now they own our right to privacy? Through PAC money, corporations now own Congress 100 percent and they are daring them to pass HR3149: The Equal Employment for All Act that would in most cases make discrimination based on credit reports illegal.
The bribes are working for one reason and one reason only, because of you, the American media, the so called free press now controlled by the corporations as well. The people have no money to bribe anyone in Congress, Wall Street and the corporations have seen to that. All we have is you and you alone. You’re our one and only hope. If you don’t cover the story and get the word out to the American people they can’t support the legislation in large numbers simply because they don’t know it exists. No one will ever know that the credit bureaus, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 19 other business groups are buying votes and twisting arms behind the scenes to stop the legislation. The practice of locking people out of the workplace based upon their credit report during this economy is wrong, it’s sick, it’s inhuman and amounts to class genocide albeit more slow than a bullet . . . the end is no different whatsoever. America needs you to stand up for the people like we’ve never needed you before in our history. If not for the people with ruined credit, do it for their children, their spouses, their extended families and all generations of Americans that follow. If rumors are correct, a mark-up hearing on the bill (the first sign of any movement to date) is coming in just a few short weeks when Congress returns from recess so your coverage of HR3149 in a timely mannner is critical.
[End Sample Letter]
Media Outlets/Contact Points:
Freepress.org
truth@freepress.org
Open Left
christopher_j_bowers@yahoo.com
NYT, Paul Krugman
http://www.nytimes.com/gst/emailus.html
Washington Post
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/ezra+klein/
Huffington Post
huffpolitics@huffingtonpost.com
Daily KOS
http://www.dailykos.com/contactus
Crooks and Liars
crooksandliars@gmail.com
The Progressive
https://www.progressive.org/contact
The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/node/399
Ed Shultz Show
http://www.bigeddieradio.com/emailEd/
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Although I am retired it is important to me for those who are seeking work receives it with out discrimination because of bad credit. I have always though this was a bad policy. There have never been an proof that ones credit history had anything to do with them taking thing any more that some one with good credit. A thief is a thief no matter what situation he or she find themselves in. It is time for the American people to start standing up to those who would exploit us for their gains.
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