The Global Crossing Scandal

 
Terry McAuliffe
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In the wake of Enron's scandalous financial collapse, the media are failing to scrutinize the connection between another business scandal and a prominent Democrat, some media critics charge.
Democratic National Committee chairman and former Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe made a huge profit out of an investment in Global Crossing, the recently bankrupt telecom giant that, like Enron, is embroiled in an accounting scandal.

Like the Enron situation, the Global Crossing fiasco involved accounting services provided by Arthur Andersen and big losses in retirement savings on the part of company employees.

McAuliffe turned a $100,000 investment in 1997 into $18 million just two years later. He also facilitated a relationship between Global Crossing chief Gary Winnick and McAuliffe's boss at that time, Bill Clinton. It was a fruitful meeting, later resulting in a $1 million contribution to the Clinton presidential library.

The company donated to both major political parties, with just over half of its contributions sent to Democrats.

"There's been no scrutiny of Terry McAuliffe and Global Crossing," lamented Fox News' Sean Hannity on Friday.

"I have found that politically we don't see any call for [former Clinton Treasury Secretary] Robert Rubin, who lobbied the Treasury Department [on behalf of Enron]; no committee has called him to testify. No scrutiny of the Clinton years where there were very close ties to Enron in that case."

L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center (parent organization of CNSNews.com), believes media bias is at work.

"Global Crossing is a scandal that directly implicates Democratic Party leaders, so once again, it's buried," wrote Bozell in a column Friday. Bozell noted that major new magazines such as Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report, and the big three television networks either failed to cover the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history or else failed to mention the McAuliffe connection.

Following Global Crossing's declared bankruptcy in late January, the New York Times mentioned the connection in a Jan. 29 article but not in a lengthy piece in Monday's edition. The Washington Post has mentioned the McAuliffe angle in two articles so far, neither of them on the front page.

But Howard Kurtz, media critic for the Washington Post, says media bias is not the reason for the lack of coverage of Global Crossing.

"I think it's fair to say that McAuliffe's situation has not gotten as much attention as Enron," said Kurtz. "That may be in part because McAuliffe's sweetheart deal had been previously reported. And he sold his stock three years ago and, therefore, can't be implicated in Global Crossing's collapse.

"Since we have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time, maybe journalists were so wrapped up in the Enron story that Global Crossing was accorded secondary status.

"I do think McAuliffe's role deserves more attention and investigation from the press," said Kurtz. "I suspect that the media are going to be doing a lot more on Global Crossing," especially now that the SEC will be investigating the company and its accounting services.
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