Malcolm Gladwell writes about the Enron scandal and makes an interesting point: that those with the most at stake (investors and Wall Street experts) missed the signs of problems at Enron. However, those with the least at stake financially (newspaper, magazine reporters) uncovered the whole mess.
His observation:
All of which, of course, points out the irony of what’s happening in the newspaper business right now. We are dismantling the institution of newspaper journalism precisely at the moment when it seems to be of greatest social value.
Two points:
1. As long as newspapers/magazines are privately owned by those who wish to make a profit off of them and as long as the people working for them want to get paid they will not exist because of their social value.
2. Malcolm credits the WSJ with breaking the story. I always thought it was Bethany McLean of Fortune (March 5, 2001) when she asked the questions everyone else was afraid to ask: Why was Enron so overpriced?
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Society's need for newspapers
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