Quibi’s CEO Meg Whitman Compared Reporters to Sexual Predators

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Quibi CEO Meg Whitman lashed out against the media at an “all-hands” staff meeting last Thursday, drawing an analogy between reporters who cultivate sources and sexual predators who prey on underage victims, according to two people who heard her comments.

Whitman, a veteran tech executive who once ran for governor of California, made the comments while noting that someone had leaked an internal memo from the company’s chief financial officer about a recent fundraising. The Information reported on the memo on Jan. 10. She expressed frustration about the leak.

The Takeaway

Comments from Quibi CEO Meg Whitman show how anti-press rhetoric common in Washington, D.C. has filtered into the business world.

She compared how reporters develop a friendly rapport with sources to how sexual predators “groom” children they’re targeting, the two people said. The term ‘grooming’ has been used by child safety advocates to describe how predators gain trust with their victims. Whitman’s comments upset some Quibi employees who described them as strange and off-putting.

Quibi said in a statement: “It is not our policy to comment on speculation of what was or was not alleged to be said in an internal company meeting. This reporting from The Information is materially inaccurate. As evidenced by the access our executives have given to the media, including The Information, Quibi has the utmost respect for journalists and has hired and is partnering with some of the most trusted names in news and information.”

The rhetoric from a prominent Silicon Valley executive like Whitman mirrors the increasingly antagonistic tone business and political leaders have taken against the press in recent years. Since his election, President Trump has routinely demonized mainstream media outlets as “fake news” and referred to the press as the “enemy of the people.” Arizona Senator Martha McSally called a reporter a “liberal hack” for asking a question on Capitol Hill last week.

That tone has filtered into the wider business world as well. Augmented reality company Magic Leap’s Chief Marketing Officer Daniel Diez recently described a story in The Information as “click-bait” and called the reporter behind it an “asshole.”

Whitman ran eBay from 1998 to 2008 and subsequently ran Hewlett Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In the summer of 2017, she was a candidate to succeed Travis Kalanick as CEO of Uber after he left the ride-hailing firm. She joined Quibi in January of 2018.

The all-hands meeting was held at a challenging time for the startup. While it has raised $1.4 billion from a variety of entertainment companies and other big investors, it is facing skepticism from Hollywood about prospects for its mobile streaming service. Quibi is due to launch this spring. A recent funding round fell $100 million short of its goal, as the CFO’s memo outlined, although the company hopes to make up the rest in the coming weeks.

Whitman and Quibi chairman and founder Jeffrey Katzenberg gave a keynote presentation at CES to unveil the service. But online reception to the presentation was mixed, which both Katzenberg and Whitman acknowledged during the all-hands presentation. During the meeting they displayed a series of critical tweets people sent out about Quibi after the presentation. The intent was to lighten the mood, according to the two people who were in the meeting.

Quibi has projected it expects to get 7.5 million subscribers in its first year. Compared to similar ventures in the past, such as Vessel, it’s an optimistic projection. While Quibi has signed up lots of big-name talent and is spending heavily on original programming, it’s unclear how many people will pay to use the service. It is available for viewing only on phones and other mobile devices. It also is launching alongside other new streaming services, including offerings from Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal.

This article has been updated to include a statement from Quibi.

Tom Dotan joined the Information in 2014 covering the media, advertising and streaming video businesses. He is based in San Francisco and can be found on Twitter at @cityofthetown.

Jessica Toonkel is a New York-based reporter for The Information covering media and how the industry is being disrupted by technology. Before that, she spent seven years at Reuters covering a range of topics including media, mergers and acquisitions and financial services. She can be found on Twitter @jtoonkel.