NP? C.I.A. & not-so-funny business

[Doug Millison]

http://www.fortune.com/indext.jhtml?channel=print_article.jhtml&doc_id=208814
"That for a small company like Harken to be involved in foreign drilling
operations getting concessions from foreign governments, things just didn't
add up. A lot of people had suspected that this was a CIA front."


http://www.msnbc.com/news/783126.asp
[...] Until a year or so ago, society as a whole-the media included-was so
enthralled with "the New Economy," the long boom and the dynamism of the
country's new go-go entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, start-up kings, IPO
underwriters and other sundry progenitors of next "new, new thing" that few
wanted to appear to be the skunk at the garden party by naysaying or
raising doubts.
       Almost anyone associated with big companies had stock options,
investments and fat paychecks. Investors were harvesting unprecedented
returns. Media outlets and their dot-com cousins were growing like weeds
and hiring with abandon. Even universities and nonprofits were flush from
boom-time philanthropy. In short, we were all on the escalator.
        Media outlets were also engaging in an orgy of mergers,
acquisitions and conglomeratizations, ineluctably becoming part of the very
corporate structure that they are supposed to cover as watchdogs. One
consequence: "shareholder value" all too easily trumped investment in the
kind of in-depth, investigative reporting that might have revealed the
boom's feet of clay.
        Publicly traded newspaper chains were looking for 20 to 25 percent
returns on investment in order to woo investors, while broadcast media
outlets aimed for upward of 40 percent returns. But except at some of the
most conscientious media outlets, there was no similar ardor to beef up
reportage, especially coverage that might seem abrasive, negative or out of
step with the optimism of the time. Who wanted to wreck the big party at
home? If investors were so anxious to worship at the temple of Ken Lay,
Steve Case, Jack Welsh, Henry Schacht and Bernie Ebbers, who wanted to rain
on their parade? I vividly recall attending the 2000 World Economic Forum
in Davos. It felt like a revival meeting for the pantheon of this new brand
of triumphal American entrepreneurialism with nary a discouraging word.

So, how did we in the media-and almost everyone else, for that matter-miss
Enron and the other big business stories now coming to light? After all,
there is a long and august tradition of good investigative journalism in
America. [...] One of the problems was that media companies became so
wrapped up in cross-ownership that they became part of the speculative
go-go boom that they were supposed to cover. Disney owns ABC. Viacom owns
CBS. GE owns NBC. And Time Warner and AOL merged. "It's rare that a media
outlet looks at its owner," says Bergman. [...] "Business sections started
looking like sports pages," says Bergman. "Reporters spent a lot of time
covering PR news releases instead of looking behind the curtain. [...]


http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dfi%2Dgreenspan21j
ul21
Fed Chief Now Blamed for Inflating Stock Bubble