Billionaires have lots of enemies

I guess it's tough to admit that you've fleeced your shareholders out of their pensions. So how do you explain it away? Blame the media, of course.

Even if the media is friendly. You won't find many publications more sympathetic to big business than the Wall Street Journal, but Ken Lay testified yesterday at his criminal trial that Enron's collapse was orchestrated in part by the newspaper.

Enron Corp. was a victim of a "witch hunt" that unfairly criticized the giant energy company's business and drove it toward bankruptcy, former Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lay testified at his criminal trial on Tuesday.

Lay has blamed Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, the Wall Street Journal and a group of predatory investors for creating a "classic run on the bank" that led to the company's downfall.

After this trial, Lay still faces a separate trial facing four charges of bank fraud for his use of loans to buy stock on margin. Perhaps he'll pin that one on Sean Hannity.