Ignoring the alarm.
A number of business journalists wrote pieces spotlighting the questionable practices that would lead to the bursting of the nation's longest economic bubble. But even within their own news organizations, their insights were lost in a cacophony of naive reportage. Three years before Enron crumbled, and two...

In the midst of the whirlwind.
Scurrilous rumors. Flying subpoenas. Burgeoning scandal. Frantic White House spin control. They all make for a scintillating political drama. But for Washington journalists, covering the Clinton/ intern contretemps meant frenzied, round-the clock work in a push to score the next microscoop, or at least stay in the game. ...

Exide Technologies Updates Discussions Regarding Government Investigation.
PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- As reported previously, Exide Technologies (NYSE: EX) has received subpoenas from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois relating primarily to the company's past business relationship, under its former management, with Sears, Roebuck & Co. Based upon positions...

Executive Privilege in the Ford Administration: Prudence in the Exercise of Presidential Power.
The Watergate crisis brought the doctrine of executive privilege--which recognizes the right of the president to withhold information from the coordinate branches of government--to the forefront of political discourse in the United States. Although presidents for years had exercised some form of that controversial power, no single event had...

Starr struck.
The Kenneth Starr assailed by the Clinton administration as an agent of a vast right-wing conspiracy is the same Kenneth Starr who was hailed in 1987 by many journalists and media lawyers as a savior of investigative reporting. While tens of thousands of words have been written...

Montana's Foreign Capital Depository Act: a financial pie in the Rocky Mountain sky or a sensible new assets attraction approach?
I. INTRODUCTION In 1997, Montana attracted national and world financial attention when Montana Governor Mark Racicot signed into law Senate Bill 83, the Foreign Capital Depository Act (Act), creating the first U.S. state-chartered financial entity designed solely for attracting non-U.S. capital.(1) Depicted by skeptics as an unworkable...

A Forceful Way to Get the Picture.
About 5,000 very unhappy Michigan State fans got carried away March 27, after their men's basketball team lost to Duke in the Final Four. What was to have been a celebratory gathering turned into an ugly brawl, as disappointed MSU supporters set cars on fire, broke windows and tussled...

Replacing independent counsels with congressional investigations.
INTRODUCTION Last year, the Independent Counsel statute(1) expired and it now appears there is a good chance that the statute will not be reenacted. This is a welcome development, because the statute suffered from many grave constitutional and policy defects. But if independent counsels are eliminated, with...

Striving to unmask anonymous sources.
There's more than one way to uncover the identity of a confidential source. Recent cases demonstrate that those who want to discover anonymous sources are becoming more creative. Their techniques may make it harder to thwart them. Consider the libel lawsuit brought by Philip Morris...

The risk of getting too close to the cops.
Generations of American journalists have tried, with varying success, to satisfy the public's seemingly limitless fascination with the work that law enforcement officials do. The appeal years ago of magazines like Police Gazette was based on their vivid (sometimes brutal) true-to-life stories. These days, the police beat on television...