***Following the Money
Old Advice for Wary Reporters
dailyenron.com
Opinion
By Stephen Pizzo
JULY 2: Funny how styles change. What was in yesterday is out today. I'm not talking about ties or hemlines. I'm talking here about journalism. Being a reporter has always meant a being a member of the-what's-happening-now club. Often, what's happening can be pretty intoxicating. After a few jolts of the stuff we convince one another that this is probably the most happening thing, ever. We then proceed to over-indulge.
Then what's happening changes, the party ends and the hangover sets in. Left behind are millions of words in cold hard ink that we feverishly penned while under the influence. We feel strangely unnerved now by the hyperbolic copy to which our bylines are now unalterably attached.
That's what happened the morning after the six-year-long Whitewater bash ended. The press sobered up, realized that we had been conned into the back seat by smooth-talkers from the conservative right, and let them have their way. We felt, well, kind of sullied by it all - six years of sweaty copy about a pissant of a real estate deal and some consensual sex.
"I am just happy to be back writing about real stuff again," one DC reporter told me after Clinton left office. Journos all over town were gathering in bars for what can only be described as journalistic 12-step programs as they weaned themselves off scandal and back to covering the actual business of government.
The lead dog during those years was former rightwing journalist David Brock, who later fell from his horse on his way to trying to figure out how to make a living without the Clintons. Brock went so far as to write a true crime confessional about his excesses during those years. Brock's book was just another serious setback for many mainstream reporters. Just as they thought the grieving process was nearing completion, Brock disclosed exactly how he and others on the right planted stories and got the press to make mountains out of Arkansas molehills.
So, what's all this got to do with what's happening now? Well, read the papers. What you see is a press corps still cowering from the memory of Whitewater excesses. As Americans thirst for answers in the wake of the worst corporate scandals since the Great Depression, only a few columnists seem prepared to probe beyond the carefully choreographed scapegoating and spin.
Whitewater, it seems, left the press corps more deeply scarred than it did the Clintons.
The size, severity, and implications of the current round of corporate scandals eclipse anything that has hit our economic and political systems in seventy-five years. And, where there is money there are always politicians. "Follow the money" was sound advice 30 years ago during Watergate, and it's sound advice now. So….
Follow the money - from nearly bankrupt Harken Energy to George W. Bush
Follow the money - from Enron to the Bush campaign.
Follow the money - from the cooked books of Halliburton Corp. to the bank accounts of Dick Cheney.
Follow the money - from Enron to Americans for a Republican Majority - Rep. Tom DeLay's leadership PAC.
Follow the Money - from Enron to associates of Tom DeLay at the energy deregulation lobby group "Project Relief."
Follow the Money - from Enron to DeLay insiders and the now-defunct $85 million Marianna's Power Plant Project.
Follow the Money - from Enron to the DeLay-backed group Americans for Affordable Energy
Follow the Money - from Enron to lobbyists at Alexander Strategies which in turn was providing an annual stipend to Tom DeLay's wife, Christine.
To reporters who cover this beat I say: It's okay to go back to poking your noses into dark holes. As long as you cover these allegations in an honest, accurate, and balanced way, we will still respect you in the morning.
The real question is, will you still respect yourself if you don't?
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SEC Giving Cheney a Pass?
SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger this week as he promised to track down and exterminate every corporate scofflaw he could find - including those at Halliburton.
Today we learn that the SEC has not even discussed, much less interrogated, Vice President Cheney about his days as CEO of Halliburton - a period of time for which the company is now under SEC investigation for cooking its books.
If they ever find Cheney's phone number and get around to interviewing him, the SEC might want to take this opportunity to reacquaint itself with the Harken Energy file that has laid dormant there since 1991. Don't look so puzzled - you guys know what we're talking about.
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