As noted here, here, here and several other times on this blog over the past couple of years, the mainstream media’s coverage of the Enron-related criminal trials has been spotty at best, shameful at its worst, particularly as it embraced and perpetrated the Enron Myth in reporting on the trial and sentencing of Jeff Skilling. Thus, this Ayn Rand Institute press release of yesterday caught my attention:
The Media’s Mistreatment of Jeff Skilling
Irvine, CA–Upon hearing the news that former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 years, most Americans, trusting the newspaper articles and books they have read on Enron, think that justice has been served. But, said Alex Epstein, a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, “Jeff Skilling has not gotten justice, and the media bear a major portion of the blame.
“Few Americans know that during Skilling’s trial, the prosecution came nowhere near proving its central allegation that Jeff Skilling engineered a conspiracy to defraud investors. Few know that Skilling, upon leaving Enron five months before its collapse, destroyed no documents, nor did anything else resembling a criminal cover-up. Few know that the prosecution, unable to prove a conspiracy, spent huge swaths of the trial taking pot-shots at Skilling with issues not even mentioned in the indictment, such as the failure of Skilling, a multi-millionaire many times over, to disclose a failed $50,000 investment to Enron’s board.
“The media’s misportrayal of the case against Skilling long predates the trial. Ever since the fall of Enron, most of the media have treated as fact every conceivable smear against Skilling made by ax-grinding prosecutors or ex-Enron employees, while treating as absurd Skilling’s claim that he neither engineered a conspiracy nor lied to investors.
“There can be no doubt that the media’s treatment of Skilling contributed to his conviction for a phantom conspiracy–and to the outrageous 24-year sentence that he has now received. And the mistreatment of Skilling is part of a broader trend: the trend of treating businessmen as guilty until proven innocent. Our journalists and intellectuals, accepting the idea that the pursuit of profit is morally tainted, assume that whenever anything goes wrong in business, it is the result of crooked behavior by greedy, rich CEOs–and slant their coverage accordingly. This practice is putting numerous innocent men in jail, and instilling terror throughout corporate America.
“During Skilling’s appeal, let us call for the media to start treating Skilling–and all businessmen–fairly.”
The mainstream media’s slanted coverage of Enron in general and Skilling in particular is a subject that is ripe for examination. We have not heard the last of this issue.
Of course, part of the problem with the media is that they really have limited understanding of the issues involved, similar to how they misreport economic news (as Thomas Sowell has often pointed out) — they have no background or knowledge in these topics. J-school trains one to write news stories; it doesn’t involve any other specialized education, therefore, journalists often will rely on the experts they deem most worthy. In this case, the side that was against Big Business was the worthy side.
Tom,
Thanks for your reference back to the Dec. post indicating more measured views of the Enron contribution. I’ll definitely have to read them. I have spent a fair amount of time jousting with folks who have an extremely jaunticed one sided view of Enron with little or nothing to back them up. Even folks who weren’t damaged are often bizzarely adament. The myth is reality for now.+
Anne is right. Most journalists consider themselves experts in whatever field they cover (government, law, business). Fortunately for them, they have never had to swat it out like the rest of us – they simply declare their competence and move on. Loren Steffy of the Houston Chronicle believes himself to be a financial Sherlock Holmes. And he is not one to let the facts get in the way of a good story.
I hope that this injustice done to Mr. Skilling is overturned on appeal. Injustice to any is injustice to all.
Mike Greenleaf