Fatigue sets in for covering Enron trial

The Houston Chronicle’s Mark Tolson notes that most of the national media has tired already of covering the Enron trial that is now in its second week and is expected to last for months.

Wrote Tolson: “It’s a far cry from the early days, when news organizations tried to outdo each other with tales of corporate excess, outlandish accounting and sudden joblessness. Today, with pretty much everything having been said, Enron has slipped into the realm of oxymoron: old news.

“‘I think there is a fatigue factor, no doubt about that,’ said Garth Jowett, communications professor at the University of Houston. ‘Everybody is waiting for things to heat up. What constitutes heating up, I don’t know, except for the testimony of the two individuals perhaps. You can’t hide the fact that all the details have come out over the last three years. There is nothing new. These guys have been hammered. People think they know what they need to know to have an opinion.’

Read Tolson’s report, which predicts that media coverage will increase when former executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling take the stand, here.

If you’d like to see Enron coverage, the Chronicle is providing blanket coverage and doing it well.