The events of the past few weeks have been remarkable to say the least. First, when the Stanford Financial scandal broke, I contacted my editor at Forbes.com, where I write a monthly column, to see if he wanted me to write a story about it. Having worked for Stanford in the past (no, I didn't sell the CD), I could write from a unique perspective.
He liked the idea so I wrote the article and it was posted on the site (http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/18/standard-ponzi-cd-financial-adviser-network_0218_fraud_broker.html). The following day, while I was traveling to Florida, I received a phone call from a friend in Baton Rouge. He said he saw my story in the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. The paper had written its own story, quoting me in the process and linked it to the story on the Forbes site. Later that day, I received a call from one of the business writers for the Baton Rouge newspaper. Shortly thereafter I got a call from the news anchor at the local ABC affiliate TV station. I spoke with each for about 20 minutes.
Then, if that wasn't enough, the day of the President's first address to the Congress, the news anchor called and asked if I was planning to watch the speech. I assumed where he was heading so I said, "Sure." He asked me to watch it and write a few words which he would put on the 10:00 news.
What's ironic, and also a learning experience for me, is that I wrote about 90 words. He picked out one sentence and that was the quote. I suppose I understand that, since TV is all about sound bites. In case you're interested, the quote was, "It seems government is about to take another dose of growth hormones."
