Fraudsters issued fake diplomas online

phillyBurbs reports on a couple of brothers who are being charged with fraudulently issuing diplomas online, among other alleged fraud. Most likely, this will get billed in the national press as another instace of online diploma mills issuing "fake" diplomas. The phillyBurbs headline reads "Online university that gave cat diploma sued for fraud", even though no online university was involved. This was outright fraud.

This kind of reporting, which does not unambiguously differentiate between fraudsters and real, accredited online universities issuing real diplomas hurts the latter tremendously. The efficacy of online instruction is debatable, but should be evaluated on its own merits, rather than instinctively associated with fraud.