The Blake Lively lawsuit reminds me of a situation in 2014. An Uber exec at that time, Emil Michael, suggested spending a whole lot of money to smear a woman reporter-editor (Sarah Lacy) who wrote about unsavory stuff happening at Uber. He apologized later... www.buzzfeednews.com/article/bens... - ThreadSky

lorak.bsky.social • 76 days ago

The Blake Lively lawsuit reminds me of a situation in 2014. An Uber exec at that time, Emil Michael, suggested spending a whole lot of money to smear a woman reporter-editor (Sarah Lacy) who wrote about unsavory stuff happening at Uber. He apologized later... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-digging-up-dirt-on-journalists

Comments

msderohanes.bsky.social•76 days ago

Well that's horrifying threat by an evil dude. Who does that?

moonalice.com•76 days ago

Sarah Lacy is an inspiration. Her courage set a standard for the rest of us.

@lorak.bsky.social

droseph.bsky.social•76 days ago

Where is she now? I know Pando shut down not long after. Is she still working in the profession?

lorak.bsky.social•75 days ago

she & her husband (both former techcrunch colleagues of mine though we never worked in the same offices) opened a pheonmenal bookstore: https://bestbookstore.com/ & are worth following for all kinds of perspectives

droseph.bsky.social•75 days ago

Very cool, and glad to hear they're doing alright.

kwarnockny.bsky.social•76 days ago

They used to apologize when they were caught. These days, they double down.

alexcharles.bsky.social•76 days ago

Remember this like yesterday. The reason is tech bro disruption at any price to transform an industry. That’s how they sleep at night. So far society and institutions have largely kept this behavior under control. Trumps inherent narcissism changes that.

redphase.bsky.social•75 days ago

He threatened to go after Sarah Lacy's family and said he was willing to spend seven figures to do it.

lorak.bsky.social•76 days ago

Uber and he parted ways. Now, Trump has nominated Emil Michael to serve as Under Sec. of Defense for Research and Engineering along with a bunch of others in venture capital and Musk's orbit (many who treat news like the enemy instead of the sunshine that disinfects). https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/23/trump-taps-silicon-valley-execs-for-key-administration-roles.html

bakerblue.bsky.social•76 days ago

Ah.. knew that name was familiar..

lorak.bsky.social•76 days ago

When Ben Smith was reporting on this, Sarah Lacy spoke up on the record. She continued to speak out on wealthy, powerful execs targeting reporters. Being loud about it helped prevent the scheming from moving forward into action, and got Emil Michael to apologize to her. Presaged so much though.

lorak.bsky.social•76 days ago

Hope he came to truly change his thinking. But seeing the culture in finance and tech am not hopeful that there's much appreciation of good reporting no matter from which format (new media, legacy, local, trade, other). By "good" I mean accurate +for greater public understanding.

lorak.bsky.social•75 days ago

Adding https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42291495 "Reports cited in the lawsuit said senior staff at [Uber] including Travis Kalanick, the former Uber chief executive who was ousted in June this year, and former executives Emil Michael and Eric Alexander, had questioned the [rape] victim's account of her ordeal."

freedomforall.net•76 days ago

This is symptomatic of systemic power imbalances and common. The cultural change we need to stop the rot will happen: it is as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning. The deeds of those abusing power in this way might delay things, for a little while, yet they can't stop it. Everything changes.

lorak.bsky.social•76 days ago

At least he apologized later but… the idea of acting like that and spending that much money to bury the reporting & ruin writers’ lives is reminiscent of authoritarian not democratic governments.

freedomforall.net•76 days ago

It's a corruption that comes from ego combined with excess money/power. I saw it when I invested £150m buying 15% of The Express newspaper for Conrad Black. He couldn't buy it as he owned The Telegraph. So why 15%? They were his biggest competitor in corporate deals, and would look over their .. 1/2

mitchsolomon.bsky.social•76 days ago

Jokes aside. Memes aside. It's just ridiculous to even second guess, Musk is genuinely running this administration. Obviously the only position Trump actually is filling is FBI with Patel

joekatz45.bsky.social•76 days ago

Jtc

pppgrifter.bsky.social•76 days ago

So this is the stuff we have to live with for the foreseeable future. Just great

7leaguebootdisk.bsky.social•76 days ago

And what she brought to light about Uber has made me decide to never use them, others are just normal "sharing economy" awful. There was also stuff like the rape victims medical records they leaked.

troutgirl.bsky.social•75 days ago

People say the Internet never forgets, but it's always a question of who remembers what. Apparently the whole rape victim episode, which was so disgusting I've never used Uber since, is something like 5 people still recall.

troutgirl.bsky.social•75 days ago

Probably they could use KOSA to memory hole that shit permanently anyway. :/

7leaguebootdisk.bsky.social•75 days ago

On the plus side, I'm never shocked when I find they've done something else bad.

lorak.bsky.social•75 days ago

people accepted them again after the company made so many personnel changes at the top. but it's galling to this day. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42291495

troutgirl.bsky.social•75 days ago

The whole situation was WAYYYY worse than this as I recall, but given Indian customs the victim may not have wanted to press some of the claims she could have :(

7leaguebootdisk.bsky.social•75 days ago

They still act worse than most.

kimoco.bsky.social•75 days ago

I remember and have never used UBER because of this.
I will admit to using Lyft, though I never heard stories like I did about UBER here in SF

troutgirl.bsky.social•75 days ago

I use Lyft, but before COVID it wasn't in foreign countries I think?

kimoco.bsky.social•75 days ago

I cannot remember. But I do know people who tried to work with both companies and it was very different with UBER being extremely arrogant.

meyerson.bsky.social•75 days ago

Can confirm. It was very difficult to work on programs with Uber back in those days. Much different company now.

7leaguebootdisk.bsky.social•76 days ago

Sarah ran https://pando.com at the time, I expect you can find their reporting on https://archive.org

kimoco.bsky.social•75 days ago

These men at UBER are the reason I never downloaded or ever used their app. I have never used an UBER product.

just-1-g.bsky.social•76 days ago

To avoid apologizing later, don't be an asshole now.

sivav.bsky.social•76 days ago

It reminds me of the broad and fierce campaign Andrew Cuomo’s protectors (mostly women) waged against those he harassed and those who stood up for the women who were harassed.

marshviper.bsky.social•76 days ago

Oh, well, if he APOLOGIZED

matunos.bsky.social•76 days ago

oh my… I didn't draw that connection, but that story, along with the one of uber execs inviting people to watch realtime maps of VIPs as they shuttled around, was what led me to stop using Uber as much as I could.

grabarr.bsky.social•76 days ago

And now he is part of Trump's administration. Just great.

risu.bsky.social•76 days ago

Do you remember also the PayPal execs who were jailed for their online and irl harm to activists and journalists? There was a goat carcass left on a driveway or something? I use that case a lot to show how normalised harm can be in business. It is almost normal to try to hurt anyone who challenges

lorak.bsky.social•76 days ago

Yes by far one of the best examples of how PR especially & tech company employees or execs feel entitled to do *anything to anyone* who states facts that aren’t flattering. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/ebay-cockroaches-fine-1234944862/