When the Wall Street Journal--still the paper of record in the industry--suggested Merrill Lynch was using some Enron-like techniqies to minimize writedowns, it hit like a bombshell. I imagine the PR staff and lawyers going into a frenzy that resulted in what Merrill Lynch called a "rare correction of a page-one story." A memo to employees noted that a deal that would have called for a hedge fund to buy CP issued by a Merrill entity was nixed by the "control group." The point being that the process held. The deal was not allowed to go through.   

For more:
- here's a New York Times write-up that includes the memo

Related articles:
- How Goldman envy felled Merrill Lynch
- The future of Merrill Lynch