The Unintended Message

Jack Falvey in today's "Manager's Journal" in the WSJ gives "Socratic Guidance for the Boardroom."  He offers lessons for board members in the aftermath of the Tyco scandal.  His recommendations border on the absurdly obvious "Do your homework,"  "growth is a universal goal," "succession planning is a board duty," and so on.  Why, in the Wall Street Journal, do we need to tell board members this stuff.  What does this say about what board's now do (or did before 2002)?  Do board's fail to do these things and thus need to be reminded?  If so, it is pathetic.  It reminds me of the Sarbanes Oxley provision that requires a corporation to disclose whether or not it has one, one, member of the audit committee that has financial expertise.  Before SOX did no-one on audit committees have any financial expertise?