Frist unnoticed

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) went to the floor of the Senate last week and blasted news media for failing to report that former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) had been cleared of wrongdoing by the Securities and Exchange Commission after an 18-month insider trading investigation.

The SEC and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York wrote to Frist last month informing him that no criminal or civil charges would be brought against him. Frist showed that his moves to sell stock in a family-owned chain of hospitals started before he was told that the company was facing financial difficulty.

Frist responded to his exoneration, saying, “I’ve always conducted myself according to the highest ethical standards in both my personal and public life, and my family and I are pleased that this matter has been resolved.”

Where, however, is his reputation? Bennett said the upper chamber knew him as “a man of integrity, intelligence and grace,” but his presidential ambitions, harbored from at least the day he took over as majority leader from Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), nevertheless lie in ruins.

Instead of seeking the highest elected office in the world, the Tennessee doctor is taking a sabbatical from political life. How much of that is the fault of news establishments that were over-eager to tar him? The answer is that they were at fault, but not entirely. Stories about the possibility of Frist’s wrongdoing were far more plentiful and prominent than those reporting his vindication, but that is the nature of news. Which do you honestly find more interesting — that a pol might be corrupt or that he evidently isn’t? The question answers itself.

It is also likely, however, that some news outlets were spurred to dwell on Frist’s troubles because of political bias; they did not merely wonder if he would be proved corrupt, but hoped so. And when his exoneration became known, many news organizations did not report it.

That said, however, SEC procedure makes it difficult for news media to give such exonerations their maximum impact.
Whereas all will follow (inevitable) leaks of information that a pol is being investigated, few newspapers and fewer TV stations will follow a report of vindication. The Washington Post reported April 27 that Frist had been cleared. By its nature, such a story cannot be pushed forward; news media don’t like reporting what instantly becomes old news and so, understandably, make little or nothing of a story already reported.

If the SEC were to announce all high-level exonerations instead of quietly sending a letter to the probe target, news outlets would get the information simultaneously, and most that had covered the investigation would report its conclusion. If the SEC trumpeted an exoneration, so would the media.

Blame for the lack of notice given to Frist’s exoneration therefore lies with SEC procedures. They should be changed.