Netflix fires worker who leaked financial info to Bloomberg

Netflix Inc. said Friday that it fired an employee who leaked financial information about its Dave Chapelle special to Bloomberg News, reports Joe Flint and Jennifer Calfas of The Wall Street Journal.

Flint and Calfas report, “‘We understand the employee may have been motivated by disappointment and hurt with Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company,’ a Netflix spokesman said.

“The leak of financial information, including the production costs for ‘The Closer,’ came in the midst of a backlash among some Netflix employees over the content of the special, which include remarks that many in the transgender community have found offensive.

“Netflix is known for its wide-open culture, which includes access to sensitive financial information and employee salaries to much of the company’s workforce. In other entertainment companies, such data is guarded much more closely.

“It is rare for Netflix to experience leaks of such details about programming costs that it essentially hides in plain sight for employees to view.”

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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.