Stephen H Baum Leadership

On February 3rd of this year, HuffingtonPost.com carried my post about spying on other teams by the Patriots. I said that the issue would be evergreen because the team and the league took a Nixonian stance: stonewalling, denial and destruction of records. 

 Today, Senator Arlen Specter, citing new information from former Patriots’ employee Matt Walsh, described the team’s illicit videotaping as more systematic and deliberate than had been admitted and called for an independent investigation. He worries about the model this sets for our youth and the continued loss of trust in our institutions.

 What new information? More games, more opponents, more use of the tapes to diagram formations and adjust offense and defense to foes’ patterns and weaknesses, cameras that were rolling without a visible  indication they were in use, party-line mistruths about the purpose of the taping to deflect attention, wearing clothing without the Patriots’ logo to avoid attention and discovery and more. And at a recent news conference, Commissioner Goodell failed to answer questions about how far back the taping went and denied the practice led to changes in outcomes. 

 In my view, this situation is emblematic of ethical elasticity in all our institutions: the financial industry (think sub-prime loans, fraud by telemarketers and money laundering enabled if not performed by big-time brand name investment and commercial banks), many C-suites (too many flavors to name here), government agencies (think product safety, food and drug) as well as religious and military organizations. 

 A major fault lies with the media which has shown no testicular fortitude in its journalism or coverage despite the evidence that the problem is epidemic. Honest CEOs had better weigh in and speak up. 

For more on this subject search the HuffingtonPost.com and the past articles in my archives. 

As always, your comments are invited.