The Information: Why did company, CEO lie to us?

The Information’s Jessica Lessin sent the following in an email Saturday to subscribers about its story where Quibi CEO Meg Whitman compared reporters to sexual predators:

We knew it was an important story. Whitman and founder Jeffrey Katzenberg are trying to build one of the world’s most ambitious media companies, in part by working with news companies.

Tom and Jessica published the story and included Quibi’s official statement, which was that our report was “materially inaccurate.” Our sources said otherwise and I was extremely confident in the piece. But I still left the office upset and shaken that night—upset that she had said what she had, upset that our reporters were being discredited, upset that the news cycle continued to return to this issue. No editor likes to publish a story about attacks on the press, and then to be attacked for it. I was on edge about what Whitman would say to others about the piece. But she didn’t say anything—for days.

Then Friday, at the Sundance Film Festival, Whitman gave an interview to Variety, apologized for her comments and said they were “mostly accurately portrayed.” I’m glad she apologized. Just wondering what took so long and why the company lied to us and the public.