i don't think most journalists, emil michael disavowed the remarks immediately. i can feel sympathy if one or two people might feel threatened by them. i don't think that policy was a good idea, it was never uber's policy -- >> but the valuation of $17 billion, you can take a million bucks and try to smear someone right? >> a lot of companies could do that and there are companies that sell backgrounder information on journalists including personal data personally available information about them. natasha singer of the new york times covers companies that do that for a living. there is an industry here. my guess is emil was saying something dumb, foolish wrong headed absolutely indefensible. you can say that good enough or not good enough. whether uber itself is conducting the way it could, the answer is clearly no. that swash buckling spirit we admire, they are fast and loose with their privacy information. as you know i stand for privacy in silicon valley. but i tell you this the same commentators who will criticize uber for having fast and loose maintenance dat

what emil michael said is terrible. but let's not forget that the media is a bubble and knees kind of stories resonate with us much more than they resonate with the rest of the public. a lot of people are going to overlook this story, and i think users will keep on using uber. also, let's not forget they're about to raise a round of financing and the silence from their investors is actually quite loud. i checked some of the twitter handles of their investors, some of them on the board. they haven't tweeted a word about today's story. and i've written emails to those investors prompting reaction and i got no reaction at all. and i think investors don't care and they'll keep on investing in uber as long as they believe it's a good investment. i think it still is a good investment. this is a cynical view, but i think it's the view that most investors will take on this. >> let's talk about that a little bit more after a quick break. serena of "bloomberg news" in new york, david kilpatrick founder of techonomy. we'll be righ

i think the bare minimum we can all agree on is that emil michael should be fired. this is a deep problem within the company. as i have been living this horror for the last several days, what strikes me and what has bothered me about uber is whenever we would cover these stories about assault of female passengers and call the company and ask them, they would say she was dressed provocatively. she was drinking. it was the classic blame and shame the woman psychology. imagine a woman is attacked in an uber in a way that could dent the company's valuation as much as my first article did. she doesn't have the resources of private security. she can't call you guys and get on tv and get her side of the story told. i feel like this is not about me. this is about journalists. this is about women getting in their cars. this is about a company culture that thinks it can throw money to destroy people's lives and families in the name of a greater valuation, and it's about every single board member and private investor stepping back and being ok with it. people who have met my k

another is a lingering saga involving emil michael. investors, including ashton kutcher, appeared to support that view, tweeting -- at least publicly, the ceo disagrees, ending his 14-tweet rant on the subject with the following. sarah, the editor-in-chief, joins us here in the studio. sarah, it has been an incredible 48 hours for you. >> more than that. i first heard about this from [indiscernible] the story has been really focused to me and travis and emil. let's not forget, this was said at a table full of journalists. michael wolff, people from business insider. one thought this was wrong. one thought this was wrong and wrote a story under intense intimidation, and that was ben smith of buzzfeed. when he called me, i was on a business trip in london and i stepped out to talk to him because i have enormous respect for him and i could not imagine what was so important that he needed to talk to me immediately. , and the plan as it was described is not just to dig up dirt. we are talking about a million-dollar budget, four to six staff

i mean, travis is, i believe, in his late 30s, emil michael, same thing.xpect more out of our executives and people who are running a company that's said to be worth around $20 billion. this is a serious, big company. and like you said, it's almost like house of cards or play acting at a smear campaign like this. liz: so -- >> a lot of political issues lately. i mean, they're going against, you know, big taxi industry, this is a big regulated industry, a lot of politics are at play here, so i think with the hiring of david plouffe and other people -- liz: lynn, let me jump in here -- >> i think that has also made them get a little bit twisted here -- liz: hang on. i don't know if colleen can hear me. >> oh, i'm sorry. liz: it's okay. we're running out of time but, lanny, again, this looks very bad. this was a company that a lot of people were saying you're a disrupter, this is so cool. a lot of people wanted to see uber succeed and disrupt a taxi business. but does emil michael need to go, the guy involved in this, before the company can move forward? >> r

s a after emile michael has heard complaining about a journalist. at a dinner thought was off the record. michael was talking about one journalist in particular, sara lacy, who has been very critical of uber calling the company missoge nis stimi missoge nis stick. uber gets you a taxi and they have disavowed michael's comments. he has not been fired. i caught up with lacy when she joined me from san francisco. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> do you think you were do you think that you were targeted because of being a woman? do you think that there is a gender element here? >> well, it sounds like things from the dinner that i was not there, and it is a lot of thing a gthat are classic like we hea pr what we hear all of the times and the things that are predicated because aim a woman, and it is a company that is not so incidentally has a lot of the my sojny issues and soy know that it has issues with the gender issues and it is referred to as boober instead of uber, and i don't know if they are going after me because i am a woman, but i don'

ub ner a hot water after emil michael incinerated the company should investigate the private lives of the journalists. ceo apologized in a series of tweets saying his comments at the recent different party we are terrible and don't represent the company. how far none of his 14 dinner posts mention michael's future of the uber. saying their business plan is to amass the greatest database of consumer habits the world has ever seen. we're going talk to lacy later in the show. you brought her in to talk tonight that. ashton kutcher saying maybe it is not such a bad idea after all. >> one of my favorite movies is swingers and one of the characters earns the nickname double down. today he has doubled down on the idea of investigating the private lives of what he called shady journalists. so this is going to be interesting. >> what do you do if you are a vc in this company? do you feel the urge to come to their defense? >> i surely would not. i am personally horrified at, you know, the accusations. i'm not sure which ones are true, which are not. but what's clear is there is a pattern of com

emil. let's not forget, this was said at a table full of journalists. michael wolff, people from business insider. one thought this was wrong. one thought this was wrong and wrote a story under intense intimidation, and that was ben smith of buzzfeed. honestly, when he called me, i was on a business trip in london and i stepped out to talk to him because i have enormous respect for him and i could not imagine what was so important that he needed to talk to me immediately. i was terrified, and the plan as it was described is not just to dig up dirt. we're not talking about doing a google search. we are talking about a million-dollar budget, four to six staff team to do opposition research on me. that's going through trash. that's following my kids. that is vans parked outside my house. the idea was, we are going to go at her through her family. we are going to destroy her through her family, and we are going to do it until she backs down, and no one will ever know hat uber did this. >> and one journalist thought this was wrong. as soon as i heard this, i was ter

. -- emil michael. >> it felt like what he was doing was trying to have a chilling effect on journalists who would write quickly about uber, and i don't think that's appropriately. -- that's appropriate. i was just wondering if uber had taken any action with him or not. i guess that is up to uber. >> to your point, it raises a number of issues, certainly the chilling effect being one of them. what other issues do you think this raises? >> i'm chairman of the subcommittee and judiciary committee on privacy, technology, and law. this has a basic privacy issue about individuals rights to control who takes privacy information like geolocation -- that is what we are talking about here. that has been a lot of focus of mine, and how that information is accessed and shared. it appears they have something called god view at uber, where employees of uber can access this geolocation information. it's not clear for what purpose it's used. they say business purposes. i asked them to define that. but they had an incident where an executive from uber had a journalist come to interview him at his office

remarks attributed to me at private dinner, don't reflect my actual re6 views and emil michaels, don'tct my approach. >> what exactly did he say. >> uber goes on to say we do not track journalists. >> point out with youngsters there, happens all the time. targeted, attacked, pr people run, hire private investigators to look into what i'm doing. melissa: you had people hire private investigators to look into what you're doing. >> yes. i was doing a story on sandy weill's son running investment portfolio and crack cocaine addict and i was going to report. that this was a huge investment portfolio from citigroup. i found out that sandy weill knew i was doing this because he had private investigator told me. obviously he had a private investigator in some way tangentially or specifically, look at my activities. i'm just going to say this. get used to it. these guys play tough. i would like to hear exactly what this guy said during this meeting, like point-blank, what he meant by going after reporters but it happens every day in corporate america. >> according to buzzfeed he basically said

second thing, to his credit, emil michael apologized for his comments about journalists.so said that those comments he made inprivate do not reflect his actual views. no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. that is not how it works. the comments you make in private are absolutely your actual views. that's why you make them in private. it's comments you make in public when everyone is listening and recording what you're saying that don't reflect your actual views. that's true for all of us. the truth is always worse than what we say in public. in fact, if you publicly said you wanted to spend $1 million digging up dirt on journalists, i would have said, "holy crap, uber is murdering journalists." [ laughter ] third thing, speaking of journalists, you made your comments about smearing journalists with journalists around. arianna huffington was there. the editor of buzzfeed was there. sure, you later said you thought the dinner was off the record. but you can't tell a group of journalists that you're planning on going after journalists. that would be like voldemort walking into

buzzfeed says emile michael was at a dinner party when he said he wants to dig up dirt on media critics specifically mentioned a female reporter who's been critical of the company. michael apologized last night. some customers, though, say they will delete the uber app over the controversy. >>> and the family of the late reggae star bob marley is teaming up with a u.s. firm to sell pot. marley was a rastafarian that considered marijuana divine. his family hopes to build the world's first global cannabis brand. besides different stains of pot, they plan to sell marijuana-infused lotions and creams. anne-marie? >> it's bound to get a lot of buzz, jill. jill wagner at the new york stock exchange, thanks a lot. >>> when we return, while adrian peterson promises to fight a suspension to keep him out of the nfl for the rest of the season, another sports superstar faces child abuse allegations. this is the "cbs morning news." up to 27% more brush movements. patented sonic technology with get healthier gums in two weeks. innovation and you philips sonicare save when you give philips sonicare th

emil michael made the comment at a dinner party. buzzfeed says michael suggested the san francisco company spend a million dollars to investigate the personal lives of journalists who criticize uber. today the uber ceo called the comments terrible. he tweeted, michael's remarks showed a lack of leadership, a lack of humanity and a departure from our values and ideals. no word yet on what if any discipline the vice president might face. >>> people in daly city may be left in the dark just for a few hours today. pg&e is installing some new underground equipment at serramonte at the 280 southbound off-ramp, affected between 9 a.m. until 1:30 this afternoon. >>> there is a new dmv opening up. the branch and three others in southern california expected to process one million licenses for undocumented immigrants. state law takes effect in january. that's going to allow people here illegally by the way to get driver's licenses. that's if they can show identification from their home countries. >>> it's 4:56 right now. bill cosby facing more

the company has come out and said those views do not reflect those of the company and emil michael himselfpologized for what was said. back to you. >> wow. okay, geoff. thank you, sir. appreciate it. >>> still ahead on "way too early," you've heard of this, jose conseco shooting his own finger off, and then he loses it during a poker game. what the major leaguer plans on doing with it next. i remember when one of my dad's war buddies, he taught me about, he did the thumb trick. blew my mind as a kid. he took his own thumb off. hey, look, i can take my thumb off. yeah. anyway, blew my mind as a child. anyway, jose canseco can do that for real. >>> later, chef gordon ramsay gets punk'd. why the "hell's kitchen" star was feeling the heat in his own kitchen. don't worry, both my thumbs are here. that and a check on weather. jen, two thumbs up, baby! two thumbs up! we're back after this. stick around. ♪ >> the bodies of 383 men, women and children have been found at jonestown, a remote jungle camp in south america. all of them were americans, members of a religious cult called the peoples templ

emil michael has spent time in washington. what should someone be doing to manage this company's reputation? how is it different when it's you and not an aspiring elected official? >> i'm not in the political world for a reason -- what should he do? it depends on what his goals are. if he wants uber to be recast as a friend the company, perhaps they should start changing the executives. you can't just put a new ribbon on that . it depends on what his goals are. uber is notitician, running for office. this is a company we are trusting with our lives. dresseds they are provocatively or have had something to drink. if someone raises a question, their personal lives get destroyed? >> this was sent to a group of journalists so that they would disseminate the intimidation? >> it was not a guy shooting off his mouth. he articulated a plan. it was a plan. i think it was primarily about me. i was the first target because i'm a woman and i'm high-profile. it's one of two things. either they were putting the journalist world on notice --

we spoke with senator al franken and i asked him how uber should discipline emile michael. >> i just want to know whether they have taken any action because it felt like what he was doing was trying to have a chilling effect on journalists who would write critically about uber and i don't think that's appropriate. i was wondering whether they were taking anti-disciplinary at -- any disciplinary action with him or not and i guess that is .p to uber >> it raises a number of issues. what are the other big issues you think it raises? >> i'm chairman of the subcommittee and judiciary committee on privacy technology and the law. this is just a basic privacy issue about an individual's right to control who takes privacy information like geolocation. that information is accessed and shared. it appears they have something called god's view where can accessf uber geolocation information. it is not clear what the purpose is. they say business purposes. i ask them to define that but they had an incident where an executive had a journalist some to interview him at his office and he told her he ha

uber executive emil michael suggested that it would be fair game to dig up dirt on journalists who were critical of his company and spread details of their personal lives. >> gabe:michael made the comments during a dinner that included buzzfeed reporter. he believed the dinner to be off the record, but the one from uber suggested that to him so he reported the comments the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. hurry in and get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on select new volkswagen models. >> pam:ahead at eight. project approved. >> pam:the major changes coming to one of san francisco's main corridors. that will put the squeeze on drivers. >> pam:bill cosby faces a new accuser. detailing al

. >> finally uber still a big story after senior executive emil michael incinerated the company should investigate the private lives of journalists over the week. now senator al franken sending a letter to them. a couple weeks ago you said revenue coming in strong, and value looked conservative. what do you make of this? >> you have to separate this little frackis which is happening in the journalism community mainly. the financing which i hear is still going very well. another eye popping valuation. but i think if you step back from uber they are going through the progression that facebook went through. you start as the scrappy start- start-up. incredibly aggressive. fight to survive. then you are so successful that your success backfires. and people say wait a minute you are now the elephant in the room and. no firing. they just need to bring in someone whose a real professional to not only change the outward communications but also some ethics in the company. but there is very good precedent for that. we've seen this many times before. they will move past this very fast if they do t

buzz feed, emil michael suggests that uber should consider hiring a the team of researches to dig upts critics in the media. these comments come as uber is trying to make a concerted effort with the media. that was the whole point of them doing this din ner new york city. >> and i know sarah lacy. but we've been on air at various times together. she can be tough. so i can understand why some executives would be frustrated. but this beyond the pale. uber was already in trouble for business tactics versus lyft and accusations how they have maybe done unethical things. and and i some others are willing to give them latitude saying well business is different. blah blah blasmt but now we see kind of at least what this one executive is thinking about in his not just unguarded but even willing to talk about among colleagues type thoughts. and this is beyond the pale. i think it's crucial to see what he does in the next few hours or days about this. because it could be very bad for uber going forward. >> is this naive come comes teams? >> i know how this went down. they have a fantastic wine

ubers vice president emil michael promoted the idea of digging up dirt on journalists including their families. he specifically named sara lacy, who you see in this video. she is the founder of pando daily and writes about silicon valley. she expressed outrage over the comments and so did over reporters and customers, too. the executive e-mail and tweeted an apology to lacy directly. the company ceo went on activity for say that the comments are terrible and do not respect the company. now uber has been trying to turn around bad publicity. they've been accused of shady cut throw practices, and uber ceo was asked why the press was so hard on the company. >> when you're starting, when people start to perceive you as the big guy you're not allowed to be scrappy fierce. if you're the little guy, if you're the little guy, that's cheered. that's lauded. that's the heroic sort of start-up story. but again as you get to a place where people perceive you as the big guy or the man, you have to approach things differently. you have to communicate differently. and we're not there yet. >> now this

it is from that dinner that the controversy started with emil michael, the senior executive at uber said put together a one million dollar slush fund and investigate journalists' private lives and family's private lives. she reacted strongly. she felt threatened and felt children were threatened. he wanted to speak with her off the record, she said no, he posted a piece, he apologized on twitter and sent apology e-mail. sarah said at least he apologized. he is the one who has, but called into question the culture of uber, what is tolerated? what is not tolerated and highlighted he works with the company, it is questionable whether or not they see his comment as damaging as obviously she did. cheryl: obviously the culture at uber, we know they have targeted rivals, driven them out of this country. this is what uber does. i don't think anybody was surprised by this at all? >> there is a lot of competition, uber and lyft is main competitor and ubser accused of using burner phones and calling and ordering false cars and it is heating up and heating up. cheryl: great story. you can watch deir

. >> emil michael make comments about not only investigatie ini journalists but hiring and budgeting a hit team to research them. >> presumably. >> and you have been hearing the chatter out of the goldman sachs conference where they have been extremely popular. what is the chatter this weak. >> i can't say it on the air but what a mess up it was. they used more colorful language for that. but what a screw up it was really for the company. and that here is a very successful company. and these numbers are doing incredibly well and they are very popular. and here they are in the highest moving to real success. and they shoot themselves in the foot, which they tend to do quite a bit. i don't believe they have anymore toes left. >> did travis fix it? he came out with a tweet storm apology. >> no. >> they sent out emails after and brought in someone on privacy. why didn't that fix it? >> it didn't feel. it felt a little non genuine to to some. i'm not his decidic judgment on whether he fixed it or not. it is an unusual situation. a lot of people feltemil. he didn't. and same with josh in n

you all this thing, senior vp emile michael discussing using a million dollars to seek out personal informationurnalist, especially one particular woman that dared to question his company. yesterday the company's founder, posted remarks on twitter. his remarks talking about emil, his remarks showed lack of leadership and lack of humanity and departure from our values and ideas. come on, i go back to you. we're talking about uber right? uber has a long list of disrespecting its drivers, its drivers disrespecting its customers. disrespecificing its rivals. they want to kill their rivals and be a pain in the neck of everybody. >> drivers disrespecting women. the problem, not only, they don't have the right to go through and spend, maybe they do, but i think it is totally unethical to go through and spend a million dollars on trying to scour a journalist? not to mention they really have a reputation of not being great to women at that company. that is the problem i have. i've gone so far to delete my uber account. >> you know, taxi drivers are even worse. i hate both of them. uber has been attacked

uber's senior vice president emil michael made the comments at dinner party saying they should pay adollars to investigate the personal lives of journalists who criticize uber. uber's ceo said it shows a lack of leadership, lack of humanity and departure from our values and ideals. no word on any discipline the vice president might face. >>> it is 5:55. coming up next, another woman has accused bill cosby of sexual assault. what the former supermodel says happened inside a lake tahoe home. >> as the grand jury deliberates in ferguson, missouri, police all over the country prepare for possible protests. next, what the mayor of oakland is telling businesses to do. ,,,, at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies, which is why we are supplying natural gas, to generate cleaner electricity, that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and why with our partner in brazil, we are producing a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane to fuel cars. let's broaden the world's energy mix, let's go. >>> we're kind of nervous because we don't know what to expect. >> cities acro

that would seem to indicate emil michaels keeping his job at uber. the question is whether the ceo can keep his job. uber's biggest investors include google which done like negative attention. are they going to divest? absolutely not. uber is a golden goose but it doesn't mean they will not want changes. >>> "new york times" reporter points out the idea of a senior executive would be fine to reveal a plan for spying makes you wonder if anything is considers off-limits at uber. the big of the thing that he writes in "the new york times," most cutting comment is when they compares uber to myspace, pointing out lyft is just as easy to use, just like facebook was just as easy to use as myspace. you can say insulting things to tech executives but compare them to myspace, big trouble. >> absolutely the bottom line there. do not cross that threshold. >> innuendos, thanks scott. >>> 6:17. busy and dangerous stretch in bay area roadway will get a major overhaul all in the name of safety. santa clara county considering several plans to redesign congested secon

internet news site buzzfeed reported that at an event he thought off-the- record, uber executive emil michael raised the prospect of hiring operatives to dig up dirt on reporters critical of the company. might this be a p.r. problem, he was asked. "nobody would know it was us," he replied. michael's particular target: sarah lacy, editor of tech website pandodaily, an outspoken critic who has called uber management misogynistic and urged readers to remove the app from their phones. when the remarks became public, michael retracted them, in a statement: "they were wrong no matter the circumstance, and i regret them." on twitter uber ceo travis kalanick went him one better: "his remarks showed a lack of leadership, a lack of humanity, and a departure from our values and ideals." and yet another uber executive has been accused of tracking the location of a buzzfeed reporter doing a story on the company. brazen? uber the top? uber has had that rap for awhile. it has reportedly been cutthroat in its quest to expand, ordering rides anonymously, for instance, from archrival lyft, only to cancel them.

just because of what emile michael says, that does not mean you have to hate on huber area but theref other things people can find to dislike about uber, and the question is, should the company care? >> every company cares. there is some tipping point notion. there is some point in time where you build up and it hurts your bottom line. these guys and these gals -- they have a hat on that is called his nest. -- business. remember when everyone said if bush got elected or obama got reelected -- guess what? nobody cares. somehow i know a few people who did. come on! >> i need to talk to the human being. >> goober is looking at their metrics. it is golden america. more people are using uber than yesterday. >> just ask provocative questions. that is all. >> i am here to do that. i was sitting on twitter last night. should careber about are the people they're putting in cars when it is cold out and they did it last night without two and a half times the charge. >> before we go to break, could we have a close up of the big smooch mark on gary's cheek? >> there we go. >> coming up, more gary

they had a dinner in new york -- ben smith the editor in chief with emile michael, the senior vice president they would be willing to spend millions of dollarse to look into journalists private lives. being sarah lacey. this furor is gathering steam. another journalist turned up at the new york office. the new york manager came down and said, you've arrived. i've been tracking it using their "god view" in cars. theanted to show off technology. but it became creepy. you have this backlash. you have had the twitter ceo, the founder, coming online saying emile's comments were terrible. they do not represent the company peter hanson mark showed a lack of leadership. the lack of humanity. and a departure from our id als. eals. is foolishness or sinister, i think at the moment they have a real problem. they've got to grow. >> grown-ups required. >> they made a key hire. advisor toa former president obama. he's head of communications. the calls are coming the potentially they need a few new executive. get a sheryl sandberg who knows the business and has got the experience and female to take of f th