CEO apologizes for comparing journalists to sexual predators

Quibi CEO Meg Whitman apologized Friday for comparing journalists to sexual predators at a company meeting, reports Brent Lang of Variety.

Lang reports, “‘I used an analogy that was inappropriate and just plain wrong,’ Whitman said in an interview at Variety‘s studio at the Sundance Film Festival. ‘None of us are ever perfect. I didn’t intend it, and it’s not at all how I think, how I feel.’

“Whitman reportedly compared the way journalists cultivate sources to the tactics used by child predators to ‘groom’ victims at an all-hands meeting at Quibi, according to the Information. On Friday, Whitman said her remarks were ‘mostly accurately portrayed.’

“Whitman was at Sundance to reveal a first look at the streaming service’s lineup of programs. She was joined by Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.