LISTEN: Journalist Livid At Uber Exec Who Suggested Smearing Her

PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy was livid as she discussed a report that a senior Uber executive suggested his company hire a team to research and spread information about her personal life.
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PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy was livid early Tuesday morning as she discussed a report that a senior Uber executive suggested his company hire a team to research and spread information about her personal life.

“Honestly, every woman using Uber should be scared,” she told Re/code. “Every journalist should be scared.”

Lacy also responded to Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith’s scoop Monday night on PandoLIVE (and later on, in a blog post). She said that she was no stranger to threats, but saw Uber executive Emil Michael’s threat to disclose details of her personal life as an escalation of the tactics others in powerful positions have used to try to sideline PandoDaily’s work.

“They’re bragging that destroying a female journalist in a way their fingerprints would not be on it and her family, is what they should be doing. That’s what’s it’s okay to talk about and spend their investor money on,” she observed. “I just think this is a line in the sand for Silicon Valley.”

Michael would later apologize to Lacy on Twitter and by phone. During PandoLIVE, Lacy called for him to be dropped from the company and urged investors to hold Uber management accountable for the views Michael expressed.

“We live in a world where Donald Sterling had to sell an NBA team because of comments he made,” she said. “This is a company which entails personal safety in getting in the cars. How does this guy not lose his job?”

Uber did not respond to TPM’s request for comment on Michael’s status with the company as of Tuesday.

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Notable Replies

  1. I thought “oppo” was the hot new thing in the wake of the elections…now you’re telling me that it’s a gun, and can be pointed in TWO directions, both AWAY from you and AT you too??

    The hell you say!

  2. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    This will be incredibly helpful to Uber’s competitors, since it’s pretty much a given that criminal enterprises aren’t allowed to operate taxi and taxi-like services.

    Oh, wait. I forgot about the law not applying when the Disruptive! card is played.

  3. I’m just waiting for the libertarians who think we should have the freedom to be robbed and raped by unregulated hired drivers.

  4. Avatar for whit whit says:

    Uber = rape. They rape the legitimate taxi industry. They rape those who oppose them. It’s their business plan.

  5. Avatar for dv01 dv01 says:

    Don’t forget how they screw their own drivers too. They keep dropping the amount they pay drivers.

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