Where Were The Auditors?

It's pretty clear by now that the stock option backdating scandal is much more widespread than initially believed. More than 150 companies are either embroiled in internal probes or are now being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential stock option backdating abuses. The deluge is growing daily, with a fresh batch of companies announcing stock option accounting problems with each passing day.
Says Elizabeth MacDonald of Forbes.com:

So where are all those expensive auditors who are paid a lot of shareholder money to catch such problems? Right now, just as in past accounting scandals, they're reverting to type: They're trying to run away, or at the very least, blame the accounting rules.