Categories: OLD Media Moves

McLean talks about Enron experience

Bethany McLean, the Fortune writer who was one of the first business journalists to question the accounting at Enron, spoke Monday at Cleary University in Michigan, according to a story in the Livingston Press & Argus.

The story stated, “‘The surprising thing was most people didnâ€™t really know,’ McLean said of Enronâ€™s employees. ‘I think that tells the story of life in corporate America.’

“Few questioned how the company was making money, even when it appeared to be spending money in large amounts.

“For example, McLean said, in 1998, the companyâ€™s top 200 employees made up $193 million of the payroll. By 2000, that was up to $1.4 billion.

“Enron got away with so much for so long, McLean said, partly because people were intimidated by the intelligence of several company executives and, thus, were afraid or ashamed to ask questions.”

Read more here. McLean wrote a book with Fortune writer Peter Elkind about Enron called “The Smartest Guys in the Room.” It was later made into a movie.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.