Stop, check, write

I checked the IDS Web page yesterday and found yet another well-researched letter by a reader. In the letter ("Better fact checking needed at 'IDS,' Carr mistaken," April 17) Andrew Teel was nice enough to indicate his general disgust with the lack of fact checking of the IDS. Teel complained that Carr's original article, "SATs: Here To Stay," April 10, reported some SAT scores that were -- brace yourself -- not multiples of 10! \nBut what is that I see? The scores Vince Carr reported in his original article come from Time magazine, March 12, page 63. As it turns out, many Time readers wrote questions similar to Teel's, though hopefully in a less arrogant, sarcastic manner. Time's response in the April 2 issue, page 8, "The College Board began to round off test scores only in 1970." So the people who would have taken the test before then (Bush, Ben Stein, etc.) could very well have scores that are not multiples of 10. Now, I understand that letter writers aren't going to do extensive research in preparation for their letter. But before a writer decides to make grand accusations against IDS about making up data and never fact checking stories, it would be prudent to first make sure that IDS is actually in error. But then again, he's just a letter writer; what more should we expect?