Yahoo vs. The Truth. Hint: The Truth Wins

When I wrote my weekly blog two weeks ago, I had no idea that I was starting upon a trilogy on truth. While I often write about the importance of truth in our communications and our society, the blog that started this unplanned series was motivated by a disturbing article I read entitled “The Death of Telling the Truth”. In response, I argued that truth is a non-negotiable, essential value if we are to remain a civil and civilized society.

I was mulling over a different blog idea last week when the story broke about Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson fudging his credentials. The multi-million dollar earning CEO had lied about having a degree in computer science. A shareholder found out and blew the whistle. Thompson’s lack of integrity raised eyebrows. Yahoo’s apparent indifference to his lie raised red flags. CEO’s shouldn’t lie to win the job, to appear more relevant or for any other reason. They just shouldn’t lie. Period. And their companies shouldn’t support them when they do.

Hey Yahoo – behaviour like that impacts your credibility. In a big way. And yes, people still care.

So here we are, another week on, and Yahoo’s CEO has left the building. Yahoo’s statement, issued on May 14, states that Scott Thompson “has left the company”. They don’t comment on if it was mutual, if he was fired, or if he quit, but the important thing is that he has been held accountable.

I have no shares in Yahoo, I don’t know Scott Thompson and I wish him no ill will. But I do have a passionate commitment to the truth, especially in our era of endless unqualified information coming from endless sources. The folks that are still naïve, arrogant, clueless, manipulative or duplicitous enough to lie — about anything — don’t deserve to head up multi-national corporations. And the companies that think it’s okay to defend lying, fudging, embellishing, or whatever you want to call the opposite of truth, need to feel the backlash of society. Apparently Yahoo did. And they didn’t anticipate the bruising.

To be clear, Yahoo has not yet apologized to its shareholders or its users. And the whole thing was brought about by a disgruntled shareholder, Dan Loeb. Loeb’s scandal-revealing powerplay has resulted in his proposed board nominees being accepted by Yahoo. In Loeb’s most recent statement he said that he and his newly appointed board allies are “committed to working with new leadership to unlock Yahoo’s significant potential and value.”

It would appear that Yahoo’s earning potential was the biggest reason that “Yahoo-gate” exploded. Dan Loeb didn’t like Scott Thompson and found his Achilles heel. Thompson now rightly pays the price for embellishing his credentials – a lie that has existed for some time now, at least dating back to his days as head of Ebay.

So what are the lessons here?:

1. The truth matters. People don’t like being lied to and they still expect liars to be held accountable.

2. Corporate power does not provide a lying safety net. The world found about this scandal quickly. Someone should tell Yahoo how the Internet works.

3. The truth is worth defending, voraciously. Whatever the driving force behind the truth is, we need to expect it, demand it, ensure people understand the consequences of breaching it and support those that defend it.

The truth isn’t dead. It just needs a better publicist. Join the Truth Revolution.

~ Mo Douglas

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