From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

This week, Congress passed sweeping legislation that would overhaul the way corporations

report earnings and the way auditors check them.

If you're the kind of market watcher who thinks that government proposals have an immediate

effect on the stock market, this plan did a lot better than George W. Bush's speech of a few weeks ago.

This time, the market rebounded briefly.

Companies that formerly had their way with the figures will become tightly regulated under these reforms.

With one important side effect, the media will be able to keep a more watchful eye on corporations. Before Enron, part of the problem was a media conflict of interest, the bull market benefited media too. But much corporate malfeasance was simply out of the press's view. Our producer at large Mike Peska asks why the press was caught so flat-footed.

Tyco Enron Worldcom Global, Adelphia, Quest.

This is the short list of the most prominent companies under investigation for fraud or misstated

earnings. It's also a list of companies who are under investigation or whose stocks tanked

more than 90% before any news organization reported on possible illegalities.

That fact, taken with the undeniable bullishness of most business coverage,

has led press critics to wonder, how did the media miss the story?

A better question might be,

if a tree booked phantom profits in a forest, the forest

representing a runaway bull market, the tree, you know what, that's not such a good analogy.

Here's a better way to explain how companies cook the books under the media's radar. It comes

from Newsweek's Alan Sloan. If you're running out of the baseline and you run a foot out of the baseline, they call

you out.

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