AP News Alert

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:50 pm

HOUSTON (AP) â€” Former Enron Corp. chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay has been indicted on criminal charges related to the energy companyâ€™s collapse, sources close to the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday.***This after being told last week that Lay "could" be indicted "as early as next week."
Apparently it's a sealed indictment to be announced tomorrow (Thursday).
I'm all for breaking "news," but exactly what is there about a Kenneth Lay indictment that couldn't wait until it's unsealed and announced? I learned long ago not to say someone's indicted until an indictment is unsealed. A lot can happen, including your being "wrong."
There's a good chance that Lay will take a "perp walk," too, photos of which will stupidly grace the business pages of newspapers all over America. Many papers will put it on Page One.***[ July 07, 2004: Message edited by: blanp ]

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 5:37 pm

I hope I speak for a few others, blanp, when I say it's great to see you again so full of spit and vinegar, with an itchy delete-key finger. Even if it does cloud your judgment a bit on the news value of a good perp-walk photo of the poster boy for corporate whoredom.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 5:59 pm

It's not spit, JJ.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 6:13 pm

Perp walks are an abomination, whether they are made by fallen executives or crack dealers. They are a way for the authorities to humiliate people who, after all, are only charged with crimes.

SusanV · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 6:58 pm

Are they done anywhere besides New York? I've never seen one here.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 7:09 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
Are they done anywhere besides New York? I've never seen one here.<hr></blockquote>As far as I know, they're performed everywhere, including Washington.

Peter Sibley · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:41 pm

From Newsday:WASHINGTON â€” Kenneth Lay, the disgraced former chairman of Enron Corp. and symbol of an era of unprecedented corporate greed, will face federal criminal indictment today.***********This is shamefully accusatory. Why litigate the case at all?

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:01 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Perp walks are an abomination, whether they are made by fallen executives or crack dealers. They are a way for the authorities to humiliate people who, after all, are only charged with crimes.<hr></blockquote>Of course you're right. But let's get back to Utopia in stages. Let's just do CEOs for, say, a couple of years and then ease back into the full ban on perp walks.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:11 pm

When I was a reporter covering the Trenton area, there was a photog who was an expert at shooting perp walks. He'd yell "How about a big smile, ASSHOLE"....cracked me up every time.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Jul 08, 2004 8:58 pm

The FBI gets its man.

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