Uber VP: we could spend $1M to take revenge on journalists
I don't know if someone has submitted the original BuzzFeed report and it's just been buried/flagged...but let's give credit where credit is due:<p><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-digging-up-dirt-on-journalists" rel="nofollow">http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-dig...</a><p>BuzzFeed's editor attended this dinner that was apparently "off-the-record", but such terms were not made clear to BuzzFeed, which is why we're even hearing this story. A few prominent journalists/publishers were in attendance, including Arianna Huffington, and I'm interested in what they have to say now that the horse is out of the barn.<p>But what really fascinates me is that even if Uber made clear that everything was off-the-record...what kind of batshitty, drunken affair was it such that an Uber executive could even think it'd be worthwhile to loudly muse about such a plan, as if no one present would ever leak such an abhorrent discussion. Either everyone was giving off a similar elitist vibe of hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil, or the Uber exec was saying these things jokingly while doing his impression of Richard Nixon. Or this exec is just incredibly stupid.<p>Edit: Also, Uber investors should take note of how wasteful this exec is. The Church of Scientology did the exact same thing in 2010...but they were able to hire a Pulitzer Prize winner, a former 60 Minutes producer, and the former executive editor of the top investigative news organization...all for less than $10,000 apiece (or at least the editor was, I'm assuming the other reporters received roughly the same rate)<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/21/AR2010022103692.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02...</a>