Don’t believe everything you assume…
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005So, a coworker was watching 60 Minutes on Sunday and came to work on Monday to tell me about this interesting story they ran regarding For Profit Colleges. Why did she want to mention this to me? Well, Jayson goes to ITT Tech, which is definitely a for-profit college and 60 minutes mentioned ITT in its story. To quote the article:
And a year ago, federal agents raided the headquarters and 10 campuses of ITT Educational Services, investigating charges of falsified grades and attendance records.
From this you assume that ITT was found guilty on the charges. Here’s what ITT posted on their parent site on June 24, 2005 regarding the outcome (emphasis mine):
ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE: ESI) announced today that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas (”USAO”) advised the company in a letter received today that a multi-year nationwide investigation has not revealed evidence of wrongdoing by the company or its senior management to warrant continuing them as targets or subjects of the federal government’s investigation. The company is not paying any fines or penalties in connection with this action. A copy of the USAO’s letter can be viewed at this address: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NYS/ESI/DOJLet.pdf.
You’d think 60 Minutes would’ve mentioned that so that people wouldn’t assume the wrong thing. I know it’s not slander, but it’s close to being in my book. If a reputable news outlet isn’t giving all the facts, that’s a problem.
