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by Mike Masnick


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?

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 12:52pm
  • by Old Bastard

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 1:08pm
  • by Anonymous Coward

    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 comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 1:21pm
  • by Overcast

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 2:43pm
  • politicians and corporate execs

    by corwin155

    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 comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 3:29pm
  • 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 comment) (link to this comment)

  • Nov 5th, 2007 @ 7:24am
  • Isn't

    by unknowledgable geek

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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