The American Spectator

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Media Matters

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Meanwhile, other papers are reviewing their circulation figures in order to calm their advertisers -- and might also end up eating crow.

Despite all this, there's no Sarbanes-Oxley-type bill being discussed to regulate circulation auditing. No lawmaker appears to have even raised the subject, a stark contrast to the Enron scandal. There's no clamor for it from the op-ed pages either.

(If somebody did push to regulate circulation auditing, how long do you think it would be before the first editorial boards started muttering aloud about First Amendment concerns and the muzzling of the press?)

No, big media is a special case, unlike well, everything else.

In this case the free market will be allowed to work. Newspapers are now on notice that inflated circulation figures could mean trouble. Advertisers have grown more skeptical. And business practices will evolve without the need for federal intervention.

It's already happening. Advertisers have filed suit. To repay them the papers have put millions aside. Several heads have already rolled.

The Tribune Company, which owns Newsday and Hoy, has seen its stock fall 20% this year, thanks in part to the scandal. They'll learn not to do it again.

Now, what would really be interesting is if newspapers ever decide to apply this lesson about how the free market corrects itself to any industry other than their own.

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