C-SPAN televised USC Annenberg's Nov. 9 Media, Economics & Entrepreneurship event about the 10th anniversary of the Enron collapse.
The discussion, titled Enron: Wall Street’s Original (and Continuing) Sin, was moderated by journalism professor and M{2e} co-director Gabriel Kahn. Former Enron vice president of public relations and USC Annenberg alumna Karen Denne talked about the view from inside the company. Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Emshwiller, who helped break the story, shared his recollections and stories about covering the collapse.
The discussion (read the coverage here) provided a blow-by-blow account of Enron’s downfall. According to Emshwiller, the precipitating event of the story was the abrupt resignation of CEO Jeffrey Skilling, which came the day after Enron released its August 2001 quarterly financial report. The report contained details of Enron’s “LJM partnerships,” or off-balance-sheet entities designed to obscure the company’s exposure to risky investments.
Denne was part of the team that released that financial statement. She relayed the story of how she and her colleagues worked through the night to prepare the release, looking to the executive suite for financial information that was coming much more slowly than usual.
Media, Economics & Entrepreneurship, or M{2e}, is a USC Annenberg initiative designed to infuse an understanding of economic principles and market behavior through course work across all of USC Annenberg’s degree programs, encouraging students to innovate and experiment with new ideas for communication and journalism.
