Via Valleywag. Silly Nicholas left his camera in the car.
So a funny thing happened at the Zuckerberg Facebook keynote today. Dude was being interviewed by Sarah Lacy, some lady tech journalist. Maybe she missed that one week in J school where they teach you how to interview people, but man oh man was it a train wreck. She spent more time flirting with Z, reminding him over and over again how rich he is (tact!) and how young he is than asking him about Facebook and is future.
At one point after a particularly awful question, she goes, “Leslie Stahl moment.” Never mind that the crowd, filled with normal human beings, has no idea who Leslie Stahl is or what makes a Leslie Stahl moment. Z replied, “You have to ask questions!” The crowd erupted into mass applause. People were hooting and hollering like on the Arsenio Hall show, belittling her terrible interview skills and her semi standoffish personality. Then she goes to the crowd, “You don’t know how hard my job is. Oh boy were there boos. Not me, though, I’m a professional. I was just amazed at how poorly she handled a crowd. She’s no Rich Vos.
So below is the notes I took of the keynote. I would’ve liveblogged it, but there was no Wi-Fi.
Keep in mind, nothing really big or “newsworthy” happened at the keynote. Z admitted that he would like to one day take Facebook public, but not right now. The story here, and the story you’ll read on all the pertinent sites is that the crowd completely turned on Sarah Lacy. It’s her fault, totally. Whatever.
Verbatim, my notes.
This isn’t a live blog of Earth President Mark Zuckerberg talking about stuff. It’s not because there’s no Wi-Fi at the SXSW 2008 main stage. Yes, it’s a technology conference without any worthwhile technology. What this is, however, is a static post of a live blog—he talks, I type, then I post later. The world is flat.
Let me set the scene. Have you ever been in a big room with lots of chairs? Then you know exactly what this is.
2:01 local time. They’re playing “cool” music. You know, because we’re all young at heart. (It’s actually that Daft Punk/Kanye song, if you’re interested. Unless it was Paul van Dyk mixing live, or all four Beatles, I wasn’t going to be impressed.
2:04. The lights have dimmed. Something exciting’s going to happen!
2:05. Some woman is asking him questions. He’s pontificating about how Facebook is helping the world communicate.
2:07. Re: Spanish language. Something about Colombian users revolting against the government using Facebook. So, Facebook helps topple popularly elected governments. I guess that’s one way to sell the site.
2:08. Q–what’s so special about fb? Why can’t people just communicate using the Internet. A–um, Facebook is more efficient.
2:10. Facebook and terrorism. Lots of users in Lebanon. Z just said that terrorism is caused by lack of communication and empathy. So… Facebook will also end terrorism. Aren’t journalists supposed to question things and not take them at face value? I don’t know, I’m crazy.
2:11. Wow, this could be the worst interview ever. Like, this chick, probably about a 13 on the 1-30 scale, is talking about nothing. She’s speaking but nothing is being said. Leslie Stahl moment. What hath God wrought?
2:14. FB and philanthropy. The One campaign is harassing an Illinois congressman because he promised his constituents that he wouldn’t vote to spend a dime for non-Americans. Enter FB. Z thinks the One campaign shouldn’t have to exist. Too top-down, needs to be more bottom-up.
2:18. Web 1.0 v Web 2.0.
2:20. FB launches in French tonight. Will “Facebook” have to be translated to meet the Academy’s standards?
2:21. FB needs to make money. Google, Microsoft buying companies left and right but not making any money.
2:22. Only a small number people in the conference room are taking notes, leading me to believe that people are hear simply to listen to this man speak. History is ended. Oh! Some guy just shouted “Beacon sucks!” Whoa! It actually threw Z of his pace.
2:23. Microsoft’s help, is MSFT happy. We’re happy, they’re happy. Do banner ads work? Yeah, enough.
2:25. Not quite there yet re: Beacon-ish ads. This girl keeps saying that he’s young. We get it.
2:26. Beacon. WTF, she asks. Literally, w-t-f. Social networking services. FB not trying to invent everything re: social services. Hence, API. Other sites. Social ads (beacon) was supposed to be great because friends buy things online so it’s seen as an endorsement.
2:30. News feed that launched fall, 2006 and the privacy uproar. Does FB inherently conflict with privacy? No, people choose whom to share info with. 20-25% have phone number on fb.
2:31. Applications. Criticisms, apps are frivolous. Apps that produce trustworthy useful apps will be able to be more available.
2:33. iTunes. Z says he doesn’t know. Talk to lots of companies, music not really fb’s bag. No comment re: FT article.
2:35. She plugged her dumb book.
2:36. Forbes says he’s youngest billionaire but he’s not focused on that. Focused on making communication better. How to meet Google-like expectations. Value of company should mirror world value. Not opposed to IPO, “will probably do that at some point”
2:40. FB’s goal is not to go public like other companies.
2:42. Revolving door management.
2:44. Overheard–I can’t take any more of this, I’m out of here. God bless that man. They’re losing the crowd. I think the chick’s last cute comment was one too many.
2:46. Management talk, nothing really for us.
2:50. Does Z like being CEO? He thinks CEO sets company’s tone. Says FB is a technology company not a media company.
2:52. Some dude’s ringtone is that Chemical Brothers song. That’s the highlight of the show.
2:53. Holy shit! OK, this is the highlight. Chick asks some rambling nonsense question. Z gives her the wtf are you talking about look. She says, another leslie stahl moment. Then Z says, you have to ask questions. Crowd goes wild like the rock just walked in. Dudes stand up, applaud Z’s calling her out on being a dunce. Then she says she threw water on Arrington. Boss, is that true.
2:56. YO ITS CRAZY. SHE HAS LOST THE CROWD, INTERVIEW OVER. QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE NOW. She literally said, you try doing what I do for a living. Not smart, lady. One of the question dudes totally slammed the chick. He’s a smartass
3:05. Is FB messaging broken? No one cares anymore, keynote is cashed.
fin.
Man, I would kill someone to watch a video of that final moment.
yes, video please!
All Valleywag had to say about this chick is how “hot” she is. Well…if cankles are the hallmark of your new-age Web 2.0 gronupie, the score! Personally I think she’s pretty average looking, but more importantly a terrible interviewer who thinks too highly of herself. Epic FAIL in technology circles. This one will be remembered. Maybe Amanda Congdon can give her some career advice.
Lacy was terrible. Like WOW terrible.
Her legs aren’t great either and the shoes are tacky. Not that either of those things should matter, but in the case of an ineffectual interview they sort of do.
Are you aware that your boss is defending her honor? Guess the left arm and the right arm don’t chat much.
I’d respect your summary a thousand times more if you left out the phrase “some lady tech journalist.” Regardless of what went down, assuming that’s an existing sub-category worthy of derision is awfully weak.
This article is unprofessional and full of sexist language. You should take a long look at your own conduct, your use of language like “some lady tech journalist” and multiple references to “chick.”
Mike Arrington says he is embarrassed to be associated with this post. http://twitter.com/TechCrunch/statuses/769109030
CrunchGear should be better than this.
So a funny thing happened on CrunchGear today. Dude was writing a blog post about the Sarah Lacy interview of Mark Zuckerberg and he referred to her as a “lady journalist” as if that somehow means that she can’t possibly be a real journalist if she isn’t a dude. Dude, can you believe that? It gets better. His boss Mike Arrington hears about this on TechCrunch and gets pissed at the CrunchGear writer. His exact words:
“no, I don’t run techcrunch that way. but i will talk to them about going forward strategy. this is not who we are”
Dude, I hope you’re happy with your blog post and I hope you still have a job tomorrow.
This had to be one of the worst interviews I have ever seen. No hyperbole. I have attended many tech conferences for years — PC Forum, DEMO, Etech, TechCrunch last year, TED, etc. Never have I seen an interview this bad. Not even on TV. She was terrible. I have been reading other posts by people who were not there defending her and suggesting the crowd was radical. Not so. She was awful. I started squirming within 10 minutes and by 20 minutes I had the urge to leave — this after showing up 30 minutes early to see the keynote. By 30 minutes in, I could tell that everyone around me was just as disappointed so no surprise a few minutes later when the window of opportunity opened that the crowd let Lacy know how bad of a job she did. On a scale of 1 to 10; where 10 is good, at best it was a 2. But I’d give it a 1.
Some of the video here…catches a little bit of the controversy at the end of this clip: http://www.austin360.com/news/mplayer/sxsw/73367
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Lacy/6713753539
I agree that Lacy’s interview was painful to listen to and I was happy to hear the crowd boo, but your whole post falls apart when you undercut a professional woman by calling her “lady journalist,” “chick,” and “girl.”
Her BusinessWeek column is called “ValleyGirl”.
From the knock-knees to the hair twirling, rambling and fawning, this interview was embarrassing to watch.
Some of her questions were interesting, now that I read the notes. The problem was, her own style and insistence on injecting herself into the “conversation” was incredibly frustrating and distracting. The person behind me muttered “this is brutal, it’s like watching a first date.”. Ugh.
Wait, was she really a lady journalist or just some blogger/web site girl picked up to work for main stream media?
Her presence in the interview was distracting.
It sounds like Z handled a really crappy interview well and came away with the crowd support. Good for him.
Let’s face it. Mark Zuckerberg is the man of the hour. If I were in that interviewer’s shoes, I’d flirt with Mark Zuckerberg too! ;)