Am I being fair to Patricia Dunn

September 9, 2006 By

Don Park raises a good question of whether or not I (and other journalists and bloggers) are being fair to Patricia Dunn?

I’ll be happy to give Hewlett Packard or Patricia Dunn an entire blog post (take as many words as you want) to give her side, or HP’s side of this whole thing. I’d even be happy to take my video camera over and put the video up on YouTube or Google Video or Blip.TV and let anyone at HP say whatever they want unchallenged by me and I’ll put that up unedited.

I won’t even link to David Kirkpatrick at Fortune Magazine, who called for her head.

Is my reaction over the top? Yeah! But like Russell Shaw says, it’s an American tradition!

Is this story boring yet? I really don’t care if I lose every single reader I have because I keep rambling on about this story. Patricia Dunn has got to go. The HP board has to realize this story is not going away.

Well, it shouldn’t. Where are we going to draw the line on privacy? At pretexting? Or when they stick a little recording device in my bedroom to see who I am talking with? Oh, not willing to put the line there? Well, how about just implant an RFID tag in my head along with a GPS and a little transmission device.

Hell, let’s just get rid of this privacy idea altogether, right? OK, I’m game. Patricia Dunn first please. If she does it, I’ll go along with this whole “get rid of privacy” game that seems to be how many employers want to play it (ever look into how deeply employers can look into your private life? It might scare you.)

HP should prepare itself for a raft of headlines like this one, HP Boosts Its Integrity, in InfoWorld.

Is that unfair? Sure! But we aren’t the ones who broke the law.

Anyway, to answer Don’s question: I don’t really care at this point. I’ve been reading very carefully trying to find a reason to take Patricia Dunn’s side. I’ve been talking with dozens of people behind the scenes. I can’t find one reason to take a different stance than I now am taking. That said, I’d be happy to learn tomorrow that we’re all mistaken and that we’re barking up the wrong tree and I’d be the first one to report I was wrong.

The facts in this case, though, don’t get better, they just get worse and that’s after the New York Times reported Patricia’s own words. Translation: I doubt she’ll take me up on my offer.

Update: Blog Herald goes further and asks “Will Social Software Mutate Blogosphere into Mob Rule?”

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  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Christopher: I was among the first to speak out strongly against HP’s board. Oh, crap, LayZ is right, I’m taking credit now. But, you can’t have it both ways. I didn’t know whether or not there’d be a crowd following me or not.

    As to the homosexual issue, did you know that someone in my management chain belonged to the church that was pressuring Microsoft to change its stance on that bill? Of course you didn’t, cause I didn’t tell you until now. Yeah, I was really leading a crowd there.

  • Podesta

    I agree with Don Park to an extent. He is right that the lynch mob mentality is rarely, if ever, defendable. However, I believe that he has chosen the wrong test case. Yes, there are a few people dragging Patty Dunn’s gender into the criticism and that is part of the motivation for them piling on. I’ve seen the blogopshere go wild harassing women and/or minorities before. After all, it is made of up mainly of conservative white men with an inflated sense of their own worth. That is one reason there are so few female and nonwhite bloggers of note.

    BUT, and this a big but, the reason Dunn is in hot water is an exercise of poor judgment so excreable that any head of a corporate board would be decimated if he or she had done the same thing. She has earned the oppobrium she is getting. I deplore the obvious misogyny in some entries and comments attacking her. Still, she has screwed up beyond repair and should resign.

  • Podesta

    I agree with Don Park to an extent. He is right that the lynch mob mentality is rarely, if ever, defendable. However, I believe that he has chosen the wrong test case. Yes, there are a few people dragging Patty Dunn’s gender into the criticism and that is part of the motivation for them piling on. I’ve seen the blogopshere go wild harassing women and/or minorities before. After all, it is made of up mainly of conservative white men with an inflated sense of their own worth. That is one reason there are so few female and nonwhite bloggers of note.

    BUT, and this a big but, the reason Dunn is in hot water is an exercise of poor judgment so excreable that any head of a corporate board would be decimated if he or she had done the same thing. She has earned the oppobrium she is getting. I deplore the obvious misogyny in some entries and comments attacking her. Still, she has screwed up beyond repair and should resign.

  • Christopher Coulter

    someone in my management chain belonged to the church that was pressuring Microsoft to change its stance on that bill

    Totally irrelevant, the minute the news hit heavy-hitters were lining up on one side. But what’s so siiiinsiter about someone that BELONGED TO A CHURCH (gasp) expressing their opinions? Ohmigosh CHURCH PEOPLE (run, scream, hide and run some more) told management their feelings. I just love how ‘coversations’ can become ‘pressuring’ if you don’t agree with the outcome. It’s all in the terminology…rename “Church” to “Compound”. Microsoft reversed in due course, fast enough, but that was predictable 100 miles away.

    But per HP, likewise, the minute the news hit, all the heavy-heavy-hitters lined up on one-side. Not knowing? It was a sure bet…I mean…is the sky blue? And if you didn’t know, you certainly weren’t getting good pulse feedback from ALL the news.

    Bet on the dead obvious, chime in with the majority, go back and take all credit. Your own Personal Esther Dyson Pan Pizza.

  • Christopher Coulter

    someone in my management chain belonged to the church that was pressuring Microsoft to change its stance on that bill

    Totally irrelevant, the minute the news hit heavy-hitters were lining up on one side. But what’s so siiiinsiter about someone that BELONGED TO A CHURCH (gasp) expressing their opinions? Ohmigosh CHURCH PEOPLE (run, scream, hide and run some more) told management their feelings. I just love how ‘coversations’ can become ‘pressuring’ if you don’t agree with the outcome. It’s all in the terminology…rename “Church” to “Compound”. Microsoft reversed in due course, fast enough, but that was predictable 100 miles away.

    But per HP, likewise, the minute the news hit, all the heavy-heavy-hitters lined up on one-side. Not knowing? It was a sure bet…I mean…is the sky blue? And if you didn’t know, you certainly weren’t getting good pulse feedback from ALL the news.

    Bet on the dead obvious, chime in with the majority, go back and take all credit. Your own Personal Esther Dyson Pan Pizza.

  • Sneaky

    Wasn’t she only following in the footsteps of her country’s esteemed leader ? There seems to be a lot of apathy over those activities by the public at large…

  • Sneaky

    Wasn’t she only following in the footsteps of her country’s esteemed leader ? There seems to be a lot of apathy over those activities by the public at large…

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Chris: you don’t get it. This guy was one of my bosses. So, speaking out could have had a direct effect on my career.

    Sneaky: politics is something else. I don’t write about how messed up our political leaders are in general. The HP board is a lot closer to home.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Chris: you don’t get it. This guy was one of my bosses. So, speaking out could have had a direct effect on my career.

    Sneaky: politics is something else. I don’t write about how messed up our political leaders are in general. The HP board is a lot closer to home.

  • LayZ

    @30 Microsoft bases your job performance on your personal or political opinions? You’re suggesting that because you disagreed with his church’s position on an issue he would have fired you? Is Microsoft management really that screwed up?

    Another thing I note with curiosity in your post…”journalists AND bloggers”…huh? I thought you said they are one and the same.

  • LayZ

    @30 Microsoft bases your job performance on your personal or political opinions? You’re suggesting that because you disagreed with his church’s position on an issue he would have fired you? Is Microsoft management really that screwed up?

    Another thing I note with curiosity in your post…”journalists AND bloggers”…huh? I thought you said they are one and the same.

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