Technology
Uber Exec Proposed Publishing Journalists’ Personal Secrets to Fight Bad Press
(The Washington Post) – An executive from the popular ride-sharing service Uber is in trouble for suggesting the company publicize the details of journalists’ personal lives in retaliation for unfavorable coverage.
Uber’s senior vice president of business, Emil Michael, made the comments at a private dinner on Friday at Manhattan’s Waverly Inn to a crowd that included a Buzzfeed reporter, publisher Arianna Huffington and actor Edward Norton, BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith reported.
Michael later apologized for his remarks through an Uber spokeman, and said he believed the conversation was off-the-record.
Michael floated the idea of spending “a million dollars” to hire “four top opposition researchers and four journalists” to “help Uber fight back against the press” by looking into “your personal lives, your families,” referring to reporters who write unflattering stories about Uber.
