The bankruptcy of Enron (Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001) was a huge failure for the press. How is possible that journalists couldn't see what was happening?
An interesting article (Open secrets; Enron, intelligence, and the perils of too much information; The New Yorker, January 8, 2007) written by Malcolm Gladwell tells us many things, including that in May 1998, six students of Cornell University wrote a 23 page report, at page 12 you can read:
"As shown in Table 2, the 8-variable Beneish model shows that that Enron may be manipulating its earnings."
On 5th March 2001, Bethany McLean wrote an article for Fortune Magazine: "Is Enron overpriced?" and in 2003 she was the co-author of the book "Enron: The smartest guys in the room"; in January 2005 the documentary (with the same title) was aired in the USA.
Here you can read "Enron: uncovering the uncovered story" (March 2002) from Columbia Journalism Review (an academic publication providing coverage and analysis of journalism).
If a CEO doesn't say the truth, you can charge him/her; but what can you do when "the truth" is hidden somewhere in million of pages?
On 5th March 2001, Bethany McLean wrote an article for Fortune Magazine: "Is Enron overpriced?" and in 2003 she was the co-author of the book "Enron: The smartest guys in the room"; in January 2005 the documentary (with the same title) was aired in the USA.
Here you can read "Enron: uncovering the uncovered story" (March 2002) from Columbia Journalism Review (an academic publication providing coverage and analysis of journalism).
If a CEO doesn't say the truth, you can charge him/her; but what can you do when "the truth" is hidden somewhere in million of pages?
1 comment:
Very thoughtful bllog
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