Zuckerberg SXSWi interviewer fans fire with Twitter post

Sarah Lacy's reply to those who criticized her for her interview of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at SXSWi was not entirely graceful.

(Credit: Twitter)

AUSTIN, Texas--If journalist Sarah Lacy got some people riled up with the style of her keynote interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, her Twitter response to criticism of her will not help calm things down.

As reported here and elsewhere earlier Sunday, Lacy interviewed Zuckerberg as the day's keynote at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) and in the process, saw the audience of thousands turn against her for a series of stylistic faux-pas.

I won't rehash all the details here, since you can read up on that in my previous story.

But as pointed out later in the day by Wired News, Lacy followed up the controversy by adding her own thoughts in the form of a Twitter post. (Editors' note: Lacy also spoke on video after the Q&A with Omar L. Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman.)

The text of her (very public) post? "Seriously screw all you guys. I did my best to ask a range of things."

To me and to many of the people I talked with after the keynote, the problem wasn't Lacy's questions. It was her style. Some have said that it was because she's a woman and attributed a tinge of sexism to the anger directed at her.

I don't buy that for a minute.

What I think happened was that she felt she should be part of the story--by making jokes about her upcoming book, by interrupting Zuckerberg and so on--and absolutely misread the audience. They simply weren't there to see her. They were there to see Zuckerberg. I think the response would have been the same if it had been any interviewer who took the focus away from Zuckerberg.

So for Lacy to respond in a way that indicates she thought that the anger was based on her questions just misses the point.

And it's too bad. I think she could extract herself from this if she understood why people were upset at her, but until she reaches that understanding, she's only going to make it worse by lashing out, especially on Twitter, a forum that is the currency of SXSWi.

See more stories in CNET News.com's coverage of SXSWi (click here).

[gomer43]

Will there be video of this?

I'm curious to see/hear how bad it really got. And I think it would
be beneficial for up and coming interviewers to learn a lesson from
this.

[jnewman]

Who paid her?

Very unprofessional. To an extreme.

Who paid this person? If she has more than a one-time gig with them, she should be fired. She should never work as an interviewer again.

Her non-use of capital letters and punctuation should knock her out of writing for a living as well.

[jesatiu]

jnewman needs perspective...

Listen, as a journalist, Lacey may have done an awful job of representing journalism...in this instance...
still, to her defense, this one instance does not make her a bad journalist, nor does it make her reaction to overwhelming outcry by an influential peer group should be taken with some measure of understanding...
besides, capital letters are over-rated.
&lt;a href="http://omnipreserve.blogspot.com&gt;~!jesseloop</a>

[coryschulz]

What is Twitter?

I don't understand what it is. How do I find this out?

[Lee in San Diego]

Apparently

Apparently "all is a twitter" about this incident :)

[Lee in San Diego]

Link to Twitter

Sorry I forgot to include the link <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://twitter.com" target="_newWindow">http://twitter.com</a>

[justdenny]

Quite frankly...

even without having seen anything about the interview, I think it's a sad state of affairs that we have an interviewer/reporter from Business Week...Business Week, no less, one of the cornerstones of our business press hierarchy in this country, who feels "screw you" is an appropriate response to a complaint about her job performance, either stylistically or otherwise. It's difficult to see our traditional press fall to these levels...

[microsoft slayer]

Sarah Lacy is dumb...

obviously she's a jaded *****...

[douglasdooley]

mz's a gigantic baby

She is the only professional in this interview...

[dascha1]

Forbes Interviewer

Is the new Forbes interviewer managed by the wealth magazine's
editor? What exactly is his recalculated worth from this reaction
now? Thanks.

[HlLLARY CLITON]

audience full of idiots

The audience was full of immature, rude people. Not liking the questions asked is one thing but to heckle, yell, and be rude is uncalled for. What a bunch of dopes

[douglasdooley]

big deal

Is she not the only thing going for BW, and this blog author's inability to drop-it is comical considering his analysis of the situation that she went on too long...get over it...

Defending Zuckerberg is akin to defending Ballmer, and most likely worse, what about entertainment value that she provided, and the fact that she didn't allow a desperate CEO to get the upper-hand despite a biased crowd...

grow up, boys...

[reidwegs]

Am I a journalist?

Daniel,

Lacy is simply trying to generate pr for her upcoming book and doing so in a very poor manner. She is not a true journalist, as there are very few journalists (other than Mossberg) who live a 'high profile' lifestyle.

Most journalists in this country simply report the news. Lacy is a new breed -- the type that want the attention on them instead of their writing -- you can read more about her and other emerging media trends at the reidwegs report.

RW

[M C]

Lesson: Do Not Anger The 16-year-olds.

That's what I'm taking away from all this.

[sanenazok]

t w e l v e

I think 16yr olds have more to do socially than that, but I could be wrong.

[Phil-IT]

VIDEO IS ONLINE

On Sarah's own tech ticker on Yahoo! Finance

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/author/Sarah-Lacy" target="_newWindow">http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/author/Sarah-Lacy</a>

[Phil-IT]

Not yet, my bad

my mistake, it's just a small piece, about the Beacon...