Facebook: Harvard Dropout Tricks NYT? Zuckerberg is Coca-Cola Scapegoat
Poor Louise Story? The New York Times reporter snagged an exclusive seat to what she describes as the Facebook New York City “extravaganza to introduce its new social advertising features,” and proudly shares at the Bits blog that she “asked the first question” at the highly scripted PR event.
Story’s “first question,” to Mark Zuckerberg, however, was apparently not of sufficient investigative reporting quality to elicit a meaningful answer. Moreover, Story apparently did not “ask” any follow-up questions to ensure she got her Facebook facts straight.
All is conjecture, though, given that while Story takes Zuckerberg to task for what she now deems to be an inappropriate answer to her public question of weeks ago, she does not provide a transcript of the “first question” she asked Zuckerberg, nor his response, so that readers can judge the NYT-Facebook facts for themselves.
Story rallies support to her Zuckerberg did not answer my question clearly cause, “blue-chip support,” she indicates, the Coca-Cola company.
REALLY? Is the New York Times not the “newspaper of record”? Is the Coca-Cola company not a $144 billion market cap, publicly traded corporate franchise with an aresenal of legal power at its beck and call?
Did 23 year-old Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg really trick the NYT reporter in a public, PR, Q & A forum? Does the NYT’ Story not have any opportrunity she may desire to demand clarity of Facebook’s Randee Barker and PR team?
Is startup Facebook’s marketing so crafty as to be able to dupe the venerable Coca-Cola company? Would Coke legal really sign-off on a “Landmark Partnership” with Facebook and make an “especially large commitment” to use Facebook’s new ad platform without standard due-diligence to ensure the co-marketing plan complies with Coca-Cola standards.
WHO IS DUPING WHO???
New York TImes reporter Louise Story ought to do a more professional job the next time she “asks the first question” at a PR event on behalf of the purported “newspaper of record.”
Coca-Cola ought to take responsibility for its own endorsement of Facebook Beacon, rather than jumping on an anti-Facebook bandwagon and using Mark Zuckerberg as a scapegoat to mask its own bad privacy moves.
The Facebook Beacon affair is indeed a sordid one, but Facebook is hardly the lone culprit, as I underscore in MoveOn’s Facebook Crusade: eBay, IAC, CBS, NYTimes Get Beacon Privacy Pass.
Story’s non-”newspaper of record” lambast of Zuckerberg and Facebook also misses the professional journalism disclaimer boat: Story neglects to inform readers that her own employer, the “blue-chip” NYTimes.com is a proud Facebook Beacon partner!
PS: When Mark Zuckerberg was hailed by the entire media world as Internet greatness when he unveiled the F8 “extravaganza,” in May, I analyzed how Facebook is Scarier Than Google!
ALSO: Facebook: Bloggers Kick Zuckerberg Off Throne, What Were They ‘Smoking’?
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