In this weary old world, where the bad news can all too often crowd out the good, let us pause now to praise Richard Scrushy.

Richard Scrushy is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of HealthSouth. A captain of industry, a generous philanthropist, and an all-around swell guy. Handsome too. A living saint, practically. I could go on and on.

Anyhow, Mr. Scrushy was accused of fraud and conspiracy by the SEC, but he was acquitted of those charges in August 2005. Just four months later, he was charged with a bunch of new counts of bribery and mail fraud. There’s a chance he might well be acquitted of those charges too, which would be nice, because he is, like, totally swell.

And today, Mr. Scrushy made headlines again, for allegedly paying tens of thousands of dollars to people who publish flattering articles about Richard Scrushy, who, as I may have mentioned, is one heck of a swell guy! And I’m not just saying that.

[Note to “R.S.”: Please make them out to “Bearer.”]

UPDATE: In other payola news, see Fumento’s trial by fire!