POWERS' POINT: William Powers has another excellent piece today in "National Journal." (Somebody needs to hire this guy. I know "National Journal" is a prestigious publication, but this guy should be reaching a wider audience.) It's about how the press is enjoying the corporate scandals about as much as Garth Elgar enjoyed climbing the rope in gym class:

There's a gigantic culture gap between the news tribe and corporate America, one that comes down to different views of money. Basically, we subscribe to the biblical view that money is the root of all evil, and our job is to expose that evil through news stories about bad companies such as Enron and WorldCom. ...When Alan Greenspan said last week that "an infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community," he touched the media in a very special place, and days later we were still shuddering with delight. The phrase was used in hundreds of articles and broadcasts. National Public Radio invited an ethicist to comment on the infection. "Some attribute the recent corporate scandals to a widespread culture of greed, and others say it's just the misbehavior of a few bad apples," said the host. "What do you think?" Citing Greenspan, the ethicist said we're not just talking about a few scoundrels here; corporate greed is a "more systemic" problem.