We’ve written previously about how founders can get into trouble when they aren’t completely honest with their customers or investors. Blogging under an assumed name earned Whole Foods CEO John Mackey some heat from the media and regulators, too. Some of you found Mackey’s disingenuousness unseemly for an executive. Others said that in a blog forum anonymity is a privilege.
Anonymity is one thing. But what about MySpace outright lying?
Today our friends at TechCrunch have an interesting post about one of the social network’s cofounders, Tom Anderson, who has apparently been misrepresenting himself to MySpace users from the get-go.
Ok, so Anderson might only to be lying about his age: He’s not 32, as his profile says. He’s 4 or 5 years older.
But as Mike points out, vanity for youth or ‘cool-factor’ in pursuit of a marketing edge isn’t the problem here. The more important issue for all constituents — especially investors — is that executives at MySpace and, eventually, News Corp., knew about Tom’s little lie, and did nothing about it.
Does this mean Mr. Murdoch doesn’t care about how old Tom is? Probably.
Or could it also mean News Corp. sees “truth” as a business principle to be applied selectively?
Which prompts our Question of the Day:
If we can’t see integrity in the ‘little things,’ how can we take integrity for granted in the big things?
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