Enron Verdicts Send Strong Message of Accountability

Guilty verdicts for former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay and former President Jeffrey Skilling on conspiracy and fraud charges put an exclamation point on the importance of accountability by our nation's companies.

Never has the business journalist been more important in representing investors, employees and the general public by seeking truth and demanding corporate honesty.

At a time when CEOs receive increasingly astronomical paychecks regardless of performance, journalists equipped with skills, knowledge and determination have ample opportunity to prove the value of quality reporting.

Training programs such as the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism came into being in large part due to debacles such as Enron and WorldCom. But their work is hardly over with these convictions.

Working to improve coverage of business and economic trends by publications of all sizes, Web sites and broadcast outlets will continue to be our Center's goal. With these convictions, the American public made a clear statement on right and wrong. That statement also represents a call to journalists to raise the sophistication level of their financial coverage.

Andrew Leckey, Director
Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism