Re:SEC and Pornography: Workers Spent Hours on Porn Sites In...
by yummyfajitas on Saturday April 24, 2010 @10:56AM
(#1290934)
Suppose the Porn/Stanford stories break. These are both big media-genic scandals.
Now the public widely perceives the SEC as incompetent/corrupt/perverts. Congresscritters declare that "something must be done", so they fire a few people, maybe do a reorg. Oh, and assorted SEC higher ups become known as "that guy who didn't catch stanford" or "that guy who didn't notice all the perverts in his office."
This gives all sorts of SEC officials a perfect motivation for drawing attention elsewhere.
As for launching a "risky" investigation, what's the risk? The case fails, and the public thinks the noble SEC was beaten by the evil vampire squid? The worst case I see from this is that congress decides the SEC needs more money/power. Oh noes!
Now the public widely perceives the SEC as incompetent/corrupt/perverts. Congresscritters declare that "something must be done", so they fire a few people, maybe do a reorg. Oh, and assorted SEC higher ups become known as "that guy who didn't catch stanford" or "that guy who didn't notice all the perverts in his office."
This gives all sorts of SEC officials a perfect motivation for drawing attention elsewhere.
As for launching a "risky" investigation, what's the risk? The case fails, and the public thinks the noble SEC was beaten by the evil vampire squid? The worst case I see from this is that congress decides the SEC needs more money/power. Oh noes!