FCC Releases Its Bogus Broadband Data Once... >>
<< Does No One Remember The Friendster Fakester...
 tdicon 

News You Could Do Without

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Nov 2nd 2007 12:05pm




Filed Under:
china, congress

Companies:
yahoo


Yahoo Exec Didn't 'Lie' To Congress... Was Just Uninformed

from the that's-my-story-and-I'm-sticking-to-it... dept

A couple weeks back, Congress asked Yahoo's general counsel Michael Callahan to stop by and chat about his earlier testimony, noting that he'd told Congress that Yahoo had no information on how China was able to track down and jail journalist Shi Tao even though documents released this summer showed that Yahoo actually was involved. Yahoo's response to Congress was that the implication was "grossly unfair and mischaracterizes the nature and intent of our past testimony." Of course, that didn't explain the two factual bits of information: (1) Callahan said Yahoo had no idea what happened (2) documents showed otherwise. Given the two weeks to figure out how that mischaracterized the nature and intent of the testimony the best Callahan could come up with is to plead ignorance. He's now apologizing and saying he was ill-informed when he last appeared before Congress. That could be true, but in his new statement, Callahan admits that he realized he had misinformed Congress a few months after his original appearance, and chose not to inform them (which he regrets). However, if that's the case, why did it take him two weeks to say that publicly after first lashing out at Congress for pointing out his clearly incorrect earlier statements?

7 Comments | Leave a Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  
    identicon
    Old Bastard, Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 12:52pm

    What can you really expect from a room filled with politicians and corporate execs?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 1:08pm

    So I guess that this just points out that if you need to go before congress then go uninformed.

    There's no benefit in actually being knowledgeable of what you're testifying about, in fact it's more likely to cause problems. Pretty much sounds like all of politics, the uninformed leading, the knowledgeable quiet, the rest lying.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Overcast, Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 1:21pm

    So does that mean I can 'just be uninformed' if I download a bunch of music from the web?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    corwin155, Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 2:43pm

    politicians and corporate execs

    well thats what EMI did to King Crimson heh
    politicians and corporate execs suppose to be well informed yet dummy up when they get caught in a lie period

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon

    It worked for me.

    I told the IRS I was "uninformed" about paying taxes on gambling winnings from an Indian Casino. It worked for me (got away with it) although I was warned if it happens again, they would not buy that excuse ever again.

    As an average citizen, I didn't care what the IRS thought of me. As the CEO of Yahoo, he should worry about Congress and his reputation which has just been moved down some notches.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    unknowledgable geek, Nov 5th, 2007 @ 7:24am

    Isn't

    Isn't that what Bush professed about the Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or, am I misinformed?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    jt, May 6th, 2013 @ 7:03pm

    yahoo

    Yahoo Exec Didn't 'Lie' To Congress yes they did lie and now they are running like gmail crap mail and when people find out kiss gmail and yahoo out of work

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
FCC Releases Its Bogus Broadband Data Once... >>
<< Does No One Remember The Friendster Fakester...
 tdicon 
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
A word from our Sponsors...
Sponsored Resource
Essential Reading
Techdirt Reading List
Techdirt Insider Chat

A word from our Sponsors...
Recent Stories

Wednesday

3:58am: Hollywood Studios Keep Saying Its Employees Must Get Paid, And Now May Be Forced To Pay Its Interns (10)
1:56am: Warning Letters Under UK's Three Strikes Plan Unlikely To Be Sent Out Before 2016 -- If Ever (12)

Tuesday

11:01pm: Public Outcry In Taiwan Kills Their Version Of SOPA (7)
8:02pm: WIPO: Informal Economy Innovates In The Absence Of Intellectual Monopolies (10)
5:00pm: DailyDirt: Augmented Vision (3)
3:50pm: States Attorneys General Want Special Exception To Blame Sites For Actions Of Users (66)
3:02pm: Google, Without Admitting It Gets FISA Orders, Files Lawsuit To Challenge FISA Gag Orders (28)
2:29pm: NYPD Commissioner Blasts NSA Secret Monitoring For Being Secret (25)
1:43pm: It's Come To This: Commentators Arguing That The Press Commits A Crime In Exposing NSA Surveillance (49)
1:00pm: US Chamber Of Commerce: Bollywood Is So Successful Without Strong Copyrights That It Will Fail Unless India Strengthens Its Copyrights (52)
More arrow
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This