We have all witnessed the recent melt down of local Utah business celebrity Dell Schanze. Who could have missed it? It has been Utah’s trial of the century ok maybe trial of the week. Dell has blamed the media for the collapse of his business. It seems obvious, right? Maybe the media did contribute but your silly antics/ploys/rants on TV didn’t help. With juicy quotes like “I transgressed the laws of men just as Jesus transgressed the laws of men but they were only the laws of men.” It is extremely hard not to just blatantly make fun of poor Dell but I will resist the childish urges. Just as a reminder Dell you pleaded guilty to speeding supposedly 50 in a 25 and you were just convicted by a jury of your peers of falsifying a police report so maybe it wasn’t just the media. Maybe a PR company could have helped you redo your media image, or maybe not? Who knows, it just seems like another rise and fall in the cycle of pride, a slice of humble pie from God, or maybe just Karma. Dell has continuously rebuked the media for being, “sons and daughters of Satan” and has continued to entertain us with quotes like: "Pray for a state that would issue you a concealed carry permit, but then arrest you the first time you use it to defend youself”, "Pray for justice to be done... the truth is on my side." or “It's too bad that all of the media in Utah are liars and murderers” or “You're basically angels of Satan. All I can say to the people in Utah is, please pray for all the news people.”

What struck me today as amusing is that another famous business leader is using the same excuse as Super Dell. Kenneth Lay of Enron fame recently testified that the energy giant was financially sound until just weeks before it collapsed.

“At times abandoning his legendary folksy manner for a sharper tone, Lay told jurors there had been "a real conspiracy" against Enron. He asserted that one newspaper in particular, The Wall Street Journal, "was on a witch hunt" aimed at the company and its onetime chief financial officer, Andrew S. Fastow. While also blaming Fastow, who has pled guilty to fraud and testified for the government, Lay zeroed in on articles the newspaper published in the fall of 2001 that he said "kicked off a run on the bank" that doomed the company.” Msn.com

What was more telling was this section… Basically calling the defense of blaming of the media for the downfall of a company genius.

“Lay didn't point out any errors in the Journal's coverage. But white-collar crime aficionados with no stake in the proceedings acknowledge the ingenuity of blaming the media in an era when journalists are widely seen in a negative light. "It's absolutely a novel defense," says Robert A. Mintz, a former federal prosecutor now with the firm of McCarter & English in Newark, N.J. But not unique. Making his case in the court of public opinion in the late 1980s, junk-bond financier Michael Milken claimed the Wall Street Establishment and media helped speed his downfall. He pled guilty to securities fraud and spent 22 months in prison.” Msn.com

This leaves me wondering who came up with this crazy idea? Super Dell? Or Kenneth Lay? Maybe Super Dell was a genius who has invented a new business excuse named the Dell Defense.