TV Trying to Find Enron Tale’s ‘Sexy’ Side

The collapse of energy trader Enron Corp. in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history is a complicated tale, one involving financial instruments such as derivatives, arcane accounting methods and potential conflicts of interest at federal agencies--none of which makes for particularly compelling television.

That’s where the ordinary people who lost their pensions and severance come in. With the Enron story too big to be ignored, TV news operations have latched onto the emotional stories of Enron’s enraged employees and investors as a way to make the story relatable to viewers whose fingers might otherwise reach for the remote control.

Steve Friedman, executive producer of CBS’ “The Early Show,” cited three ways to attack the intricate story, conceding that the business approach is one “most of the audience will find very, very boring and not understand unless they live in the Cayman Islands.”

Friedman prefers the emotional side, calling the tales of lost 401(k) retirement money “the grist of morning television.” He also likes the “caper” approach, or “Who’s going to get caught where and thrown in jail.”

News executives say they have no plans to line up a coterie of financial consultants to explain the story, as they have with the military experts detailing operations in Afghanistan or the constitutional law experts who held forth after the disputed 2000 presidential election.

“Are we going to see green eye-shade guys with a garter around their sleeve and a huge balance sheet on the wall?” asked CNBC anchor Ron Insana. “I don’t think so. The straighter you play it, in some ways, the better off you are. People like the plain talk.”

ABC’s “World News Tonight” created a segment called “The Outrage File” to handle much of its Enron coverage, featuring such stories as looking at an employee selling his house because he’s not getting his promised severance. But the show also called in offbeat correspondent Robert Krulwich, known for his talent at making dry financial material interesting. On Thursday, Krulwich used a yellow balloon graphic to explain in very basic language how Enron is thought to have inflated its worth through multiple off-the-books partnerships.

“There’s no question I’m trying to leaven the coverage with people stories, but we’re not doing that at the expense of the broader stories,” said Paul Slavin, the newscast’s executive producer, who added that the story has moved so quickly--from the shredding of documents to Friday’s apparent suicide of a former top Enron executive--that he’s not worried about boring viewers.

ABC’s “Nightline” has tackled the story twice, including a Dec. 12 piece that at that time marked only the second topic that was not terrorism or war-related to be featured on a late-night program since Sept. 11 (the other was the death of ex-Beatle George Harrison).

“Nightline” and other programs also have tried to connect what Enron and auditor Andersen did to practices at other companies. “That perks people’s ears up,” Executive Producer Leroy Sievers said.

As Gresham Striegel, senior producer of Fox News Channel’s business coverage, noted, “Instead of taking the micro approach of, say, what exactly a derivative is, we try to take a sense of, could this happen to you? What are the things you should look for? What’s being done?”

Not everyone thinks TV needs to be so concerned with whether viewers will be bored by the Enron story. “We dare to be dull,” said CNN’s “Moneyline” anchor Lou Dobbs, suggesting the story’s “manifest importance” within the financial and political world “creates an atmosphere in which viewers are willing to do the heavy lifting necessary to understand it.”

CNBC’s Insana goes so far as to call the billions of dollars that were lost “really sexy,” with the magnitude of the possible financial fraud making the story more viewer-friendly. “It helps that the size and scope is eye-popping on its own merit.”

Still, when cable networks had to choose Thursday between the first Enron hearings on Capitol Hill and the first court appearance of accused American Talib John Walker Lindh, the hearings received less coverage--before the children kidnapped by their school bus driver took precedence over both.

“That transcends [everything],” Striegel said. “That’s a heartstrings story that’s going to garner a lot of attention.”

Cable network executives also expect a hearing appearance by former Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay to garner more attention “because of his connection to the president and the vice president,” Striegel said.