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American Morning

Were Stars Already in Line for Another Media Scandal when Enron Came Along?

Aired January 18, 2002 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some late-breaking news new for you now, a new development in the Enron case.

CNN's John King administration officials says Vice President Richard Cheney did speak to a political leader in India, about getting repayment of more than $64 million debt owed to Enron. Cheney says he has met three times with Indian officials since taking office, but the Enron debt issue came up only once, yet another thing to talk with our media panel today.

So in addition to that, did the media rush to judgment in the case of an Egyptian college student who was tossed in jail on suspicion of terrorism?

And were the stars already in line for another media scandal when Enron came along? Time to cue our weekly "Reporter Roundtable."

Joining Jack and me are Rich Lowry, editor of "The National Review," and Michael Kramer, columnist for "The New York Daily News."

TGIF. Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

ZAHN: Let's start off with exclusive story in your newspaper this morning, "The Daily News."

MICHAEL KRAMER, "THE DAILY NEWS": John King just confirmed.

ZAHN: Yes, he just confirmed that administration officials said that the vice president helped to try to get a debt retired, a $64 million debt owed to Enron from a giant energy project in India.

What are the ramifications of that?

KRAMER: Well, they could be huge, or they could be minor. I think that what's happening now is that we're seeing a kind of replay of things we've seen in previous scandals, where information starts dribbling out. Eventually it becomes -- it burbles up and it becomes such a massive thing that everybody investigates and people go pretty nuts.

But I think the administration has been foolish in keeping things under wraps, and trying to play the old game of semicover up, I think at this point. What was clearly a business scandal is now morphing into a political business scandal as well. And these kinds of stories, showing contacts that we didn't know about previously, are obviously harmful.

ZAHN: This coming at a time when of course the administration continues to say that these congressional investigations are a waste of taxpayers' money.

But is this story in and of itself damaging, Rich?

RICH LOWRY, "THE NATIONAL REVIEW": I don't want to minimize Michael's scoop, because you know, it is a newsworthy item. But the fact is, the government was involved, beginning back in the Clinton administration, in helping Enron get this project in India. And it -- the loans involved were backed by various government entities, so the government arguably had an interest in seeing that this thing succeeded.

It's a typical corporate welfare type of project that I don't like at all. But Michael is right about the White House media strategy here. That they -- they're looking as though they're guilty. Things like this will dribble out, and every time they do, it's going to play much worse than it would have if they had just gotten it out all at once. They should pick a Friday, a Friday afternoon, and push all the stuff out the door and be done with it, instead of, you know, dying drip by drip.

ZAHN: As it turned out, this information was readily available through Freedom of Information Act.

KRAMER: That's right.

ZAHN: So one wonders whether you're going to get access to it.

CAFFERTY: But I think, once again, it's a perception problem. The perception is they have something to hide. The question is, is it exactly that? Is it the media wanting desperately to find a link between Enron and the Bush administration? It's not unusual, one, for the American government to intervene on behalf of American corporations that do business overseas. It Happens all the time. The other piece of this that fits into this idea that they're not fessing up is that they refuse to release any of the details about these meeting that occurred with Enron officials and others energy officials at the time the Bush administration was trying to formulate a policy.

Is the news media desperate to tie these two things together, and is that part of the problem that -- creating this perception we're talking about?

KRAMER: I don't know if desperate the right word. But since you ask -- are we hungry for another scandal? Absolutely, I mean, to be fair about it. We love this kind of stuff.

CAFFERTY: Sure. KRAMER: On the other hand, we generally don't manufacture them. We're certainly capable of exaggerating them. But now, it's kind of taking on a life of its own because of the way the administration is handling it. So I don't think the press yet is acting irresponsibly. We're right there.

CAFFERTY: It's very close.

LOWRY: We're always right there.

(CROSSTALK)

LOWRY: This is a little odd. I mean, this is basically, at the moment, a business story. And it's -- "The New York Times" has had two stories on it, on the front page every day for more than a week. And I think that shows an eagerness to play it into something bigger.

ZAHN: Hang on. But Michael said this is quickly morphing into a political story. Do you not acknowledge that?

LOWRY: Well, the political story at the moment is that the White House is not telling us more. Now, that's not exactly a smoking gun. It's a bit of a -- the story is the fact that there's a nonstory and the White House isn't telling us more. There's no evidence of any wrongdoing here -- none, zero, zilch. It reminds me a little bit of the cocaine controversy, way back in the beginning of the primaries, where reporters were dogging Bush for days, saying tell us everything about every little jot and tittle (ph) of the things that you did in the past that you're embarrassed about. He said, no, I'm not going to play the scandal game, and the administration is taking that tact here, we're not going to play the scandal game.

Whether it will work or not, I don't know. But there's certainly no evidence of any wrongdoing.

KRAMER: Not playing never works.

LOWRY: If there's nothing more, Michael, where does the story get its oxygen?

KRAMER: Look, I mean, if you were...

ZAHN: Quickly here, Michael, because our producer is going to yell at us. We need commercial to pay for this conversation.

KRAMER: Rich's ideology is showing a little bit.

LOWRY: My ideology never shows.

ZAHN: Five seconds.

KRAMER: The administration is mostly responsible, I think, for blowing this up of proportion, if indeed it deserves to be -- if indeed it is something blown out of proportion.

LOWRY: Like the administration doesn't edit "The New York Times," come on.

CAFFERTY: All right, fellows, thank you.

ZAHN: Finish the conversation.

KRAMER: It will still be here. This story is not going away.

ZAHN: It is certainly not going away.

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