Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

buzzfeed.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 373 posts

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#351

Post by wpietri »

dragonwriter wrote: post #314
wpietri wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Journalism is a constitutionally protected activity that is a cornerstone of democracy. Without an informed public, democracy cannot work. Attempting to subvert that by threatening journalists is flat out wrong. If you are a business owner, sure, you can legally investigate journalists. But that is very different than threatening to leak material about them to influence press coverage. Also, your "turnabout is…

> Greenwald got the secrets of the NSA, but that does not mean that the NSA is entitled to steal Greenwald's secrets. Isn't the underlying theme behind the secrets that Greenwald got that the NSA feels that it is entitled steal everyone's secrets, whether or not the targets have first gotten the NSA's secrets, because NSA?

Sure. And I'm saying that's wrong.

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#352

Post by wpietri »

philwelch wrote: post #322
wpietri wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logical? By no-shades-of-gray, nuance-eliminating, crazy-person logic, sure. Uber did some sexist stuff. A woman called them out for it. A man got upset and talked about a detailed revenge fantasy against her. He did not name any other journalists, even though plenty of people have been critical of Uber. Gender is part of this story. I'm not saying that this guy is or is not a sexist or a misogynist, and I'm not sayi…

You've qualified your words very well then; whenever someone calls you out for what you said, you can credibly backtrack to the fact that you didn't say much of anything. You would have a promising career in politics. What you imply has troublesome connotations, which you seem unwilling to honestly address, so you just insult me instead.

Your inferring something does not mean I implied it. Also, I didn't insult you, I mocked your eminently mockable argument. You're going to have to work on your reading comprehension if you want to be taken seriously.

I'm not backtracking at all. I said that gender was clearly in play, and that it seemed reasonable to see his behaviors as misogynistic given the context. I stand by those statements.

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#353

Post by AnimalMuppet »

philwelch wrote: post #290
metaphorm wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

these aren't blurry lines. if Emil Michael feels like a journalist stepped over a line in reporting then he should have filed a civil suit. that's not what he suggested. he suggested utilizing millions of dollars of the resources of a billion dollar company to engage a campaign of systematic intimidation and harassment against journalists he didn't like.

Because this is what journalists do.

Ah, yes. Two wrongs make a right. Of course they do.

Is that really your position? Or do you want somebody in the room to be a responsible grownup?

(Of course, preferably both sides would be grownups, but one side crawling into the gutter does not excuse the other side for also doing so.)

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#354

Post by AnimalMuppet »

rhizome wrote: post #9
Asparagirl wrote: post #3

Attempting to blackmail the press if they challenge your company's PR? Specifically targeting parents' worst fears by threatening to reveal details of the location of their children? Openly rifling through the location metadata of another female journalist, a customer of theirs, without her consent? Implicitly saying they'll leak customer data of Uber customers who are journalists, the kind of thing that can potentia…

You don't say things like this to an audience containing media members and not expect it to get out. Not only that, but by the same token this is in no way "attempted" blackmail. Are we supposed to assume Uber does not already buy 1MM PR spends?

I wonder... what if that's the point? What if mentioning it to an audience containing media members means that it does get out, and therefore they don't have to spend the million bucks?

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#355

Post by theorique »

quadratical wrote: post #244
nhangen wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, Paul and Sara have been on an absolute witch hunt, seemingly angry because of Travis' capitalist ideals. I'm not going to defend the guy that made these comments, but I've heard enough from Sara and Paul to know that Pando has waged war on Uber, and should not be surprised that they've ruffled some feathers. Pando also shares a common investor with Lyft, so there's that...

In all fairness, Paul and Sara have been on an absolute witch hunt, seemingly angry because of Travis' capitalist ideals. I've desperately avoided commenting on anything related to his because I've known Travis for about a decade, but... you are sadly mistaken. Uber has a downright toxic culture. Sarah might have gone a little far here and there, but it is not because Travis is capitalistic, but because he's turned i…

I recently saw a lovely email sent by Travis for an offsite reminding everyone that they were not allowed to fuck their subordinates and he, by extension, was not allowed to fuck anyone. That isn't just toxic to women. That is downright scumbaggery.

That sounds like a reasonable reminder of the rules and protocols. Unless you are suggesting that the power differential can be overcome and managers should have sex with their subordinates.

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#356

Post by imanaccount247 »

mipapage wrote: post #347
imanaccount247 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Well, its not PC is it? Really? Then why is it so notable that the person is a "female journalist"? Why are people deliberately distorting "journalists are dragging our private affairs out to use against us, we should do it to them" as "he's threatening to reveal the locations of people's children"? >are not behaving to a standard that people would support. Many people do support, that's precisely what I said. I am…

It would be quite hard to judge how many people 'kept Uber installed despite this incident'. A simple scan over HN and the comments under the stories about this do not support your stance that many do support Uber in this. The simple idea of "journalists are dragging our private affairs out to use against us, we should do it to them" is where these people fell down. Sure, some people are distorting it and it could th…

>A simple scan over HN and the comments under the stories about this do not support your stance that many do support Uber in this.

HN posters are not a random sample.

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#357

Post by mipapage »

imanaccount247 wrote: post #356
mipapage wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be quite hard to judge how many people 'kept Uber installed despite this incident'. A simple scan over HN and the comments under the stories about this do not support your stance that many do support Uber in this. The simple idea of "journalists are dragging our private affairs out to use against us, we should do it to them" is where these people fell down. Sure, some people are distorting it and it could th…

>A simple scan over HN and the comments under the stories about this do not support your stance that many do support Uber in this. HN posters are not a random sample.

You are correct. I figure that HN and the commenters on the articles about the issue are the people who know about this issue, the general public perhaps not so much.

Going by those assumptions, rule out the general public, and while I still don't have a random sample, I have something. Pretty much the only thing around without actually polling. And that only thing concludes the opposite of "lots of people are supporting them." But whatever, that's all smoke.

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#358

Post by toomuchtodo »

quadratical wrote: post #244
nhangen wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, Paul and Sara have been on an absolute witch hunt, seemingly angry because of Travis' capitalist ideals. I'm not going to defend the guy that made these comments, but I've heard enough from Sara and Paul to know that Pando has waged war on Uber, and should not be surprised that they've ruffled some feathers. Pando also shares a common investor with Lyft, so there's that...

In all fairness, Paul and Sara have been on an absolute witch hunt, seemingly angry because of Travis' capitalist ideals. I've desperately avoided commenting on anything related to his because I've known Travis for about a decade, but... you are sadly mistaken. Uber has a downright toxic culture. Sarah might have gone a little far here and there, but it is not because Travis is capitalistic, but because he's turned i…

> but because he's turned into some kind of megalomaniac nearly unrecognizable from the person I knew a decade ago.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of VC money does that to people. Looking forward to the documentary about Uber after its function is turned into a commodity.

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#359

Post by johnsmith32 »

It seems that most are commenting on why Uber executive shouldn't be doing this. But none has viewed this from Uber's perspective. If your startup was being threatened by a brown-nosing bonus-loving trigger-happy reporter, what are you going to do? Publish a press statement? Hire more reporter to spread positive propaganda? A cost-benefit analysis would show it is simply cheaper to hire a hitman to take her out. Before you argue with me over ethics and human rights, this isn't the first time a company has did this. Do a google on volkswagon and Glaxo-smith klein cost-benefit analysises and they are equally expedient. So why our society allows large corporations to trade capital for human lives while we condamn a startup for doing the exact same thing?!?

Re: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists

#360

Post by philwelch »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #353
philwelch wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because this is what journalists do.

Ah, yes. Two wrongs make a right. Of course they do. Is that really your position? Or do you want somebody in the room to be a responsible grownup? (Of course, preferably both sides would be grownups, but one side crawling into the gutter does not excuse the other side for also doing so.)

I agree. But does it justify idly suggesting, in frustration, that one do so?
Post reply on HN