When truth comes for power

Hello, readers!

Many of the stories that stay with us would never have been heard if not for a gutsy journalist. Remember finding out the lawsuit that brought down Gawker was fueled (and bankrolled) by a billionaire’s vendetta? Or that your photos on Facebook were being harvested for potential sale to authoritarian regimes by a secretive facial recognition company? If the answer is yes, chances are you’ve read Ryan Mac.

Ryan is a senior reporter with BuzzFeed News, where he covers money, tech, and power. His reporting exposes how power is wielded by those who hold it over everyday people. He’s investigated and written about the billionaires you’ve heard of, and made you aware of many you hadn’t, no doubt. Lioness spoke with Ryan about what he’s covering now - here’s some of our conversation:

Why do you choose to work on the stories you do?

As a journalist, you are able to take people to task who rarely take criticism and are usually not told the truth to their face. It’s not like I wake up in the morning thinking, “Who can I piss off today?” Instead I think about what story is interesting, who is taking advantage of who, and what hasn’t been told. 

Nowadays, with coronavirus, that’s a lot of labor abuse. There are employers that are putting their employees in danger while they’re raking in profits. For instance, there was a memo leaked to VICE last week that revealed how Amazon PR and legal executives were plotting to smear a main labor organizer by painting him as “not smart or articulate.” These types of companies don’t like being challenged by the worker — and this pandemic is certainly creating a broader public realization that companies do take advantage of their workers.

A lot of the information about people in power must come from their employees. What stories have you told that came about because someone on the inside spoke up?

When Elon Musk’s company SpaceX was deemed essential by the federal government, employees coming in to work everyday were seeing schools and businesses shutting down around them. Many, namely childcare workers, told us they were fearful, but were afraid to speak up because of Elon’s stance on the matter. And then at Costco, contract workers told us they felt slighted: we heard reports of no gloves, no masks, no overtime, and no communication with regards to who was sick or not. The reality is, many services and companies operate on the backs of people who aren’t treated all that well.

It takes a lot of guts for people to go to journalists. But the reason why people are willing to talk to us is because they see something that’s fundamentally wrong, or want something to change. 

You report a lot on Elon Musk. Why?

I cover a lot of powerful people and powerful companies in Silicon Valley. I’ve written stories on Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and of course a lot about Elon. Elon is an interesting character. He’s incredibly rich, and runs two incredibly influential companies. I see what he’s thinking because he puts it out there, so that gives a reporter a lot of avenues to explore. Not every powerful person is up at 3am, tweeting about experimental coronavirus drugs. 

Early on in the pandemic, Elon made a lot of attempts to downplay coronavirus. One of the first things he said was “The coronavirus panic is dumb.” He has a massive platform, with nearly 33 million followers on Twitter. He expressed skepticism about the death rates, and spread misinformation when he tweeted that “kids are essentially immune.” He kept doubling down. 

In March, California was one of the first states to have a shelter-in-place, but I was told by employees that Elon made it clear he disagreed with the government’s decision and wanted to continue having people come into the office. He claimed that you are more likely to die in a car crash than from coronavirus, which is ironic given that he runs a car company. 

He has a way of backing himself into a corner after an initial opinion he states causes consternation or disagreement or pushback. When he tweeted that he was taking Tesla private and had funding secured, the fact was that he actually did not have funding secured. Yet he continued to hammer that idea on Twitter, causing a lot of angst in the markets. It’s almost as if he says something publicly in an attempt to make it true. 

I remember hearing that Musk and his companies have actually begun mobilizing to address the pandemic now, is that right?

It’s pretty well-known that Tesla is now looking into manufacturing ventilators. People do respect Elon and look up to him as a business leader. People like New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio are tweeting thanks to Elon for sending ventilators, and now have to rely on him--they need his expertise to tap into supply chains to get certain materials. 

I will say that while I haven’t looked into the difference between Tesla’s emergency manufacturing response and that of other car companies like Ford and GM, I do know that Ford and GM don’t have CEOs on Twitter posting memes or spreading coronavirus misinformation.

These days it is common for a powerful person, or someone who benefits from a specific power imbalance, to dismiss a story they don’t like by calling it “fake news.” How do you deal with accusations of news bias?

If there’s a story someone doesn’t like off the bat, they’re not going to debate it on its merits. They’re going to use their platform to declare something fake and move on, and their followers believe it. 

Elon Musk called BuzzFeed a mind virus the other day. That was in reference to a story about how COVID cases and deaths have been underreported, written by two of my colleagues who shared what doctors and nurses were seeing on the front lines. If Elon wants to dispute that, he can, but at the end of the day, readers will look into the reporting and diligence we’ve done and make their own decision. 

Final question: what changes have you seen your stories create?  

Prior to the pandemic, we wrote about what happens when high profile Silicon Valley leaders are “Me Too’ed.” It’s common that bad actors are allowed back into their jobs with very few repercussions, as a result of the power structure in place. One general manager at Uber who was fired for sexual battery was hired a short time later somewhere else as an executive -- he went from job to job because the system doesn’t hold powerful people to account. After the story came out, and his actions were scrutinized and brought to light, he resigned from his position.

A few weeks ago, we broke the story about SpaceX childcare worker concerns, which detailed there were internal fears among childcare workers that people at the company had coronavirus. Two days after the story came out, the company formally announced its first cases. I don’t know how it played out behind the scenes, but I don’t think it was coincidental. The company had no choice but to be transparent with their employees, and I’d like to think our reporting helped. 

Have a tip for Ryan about the flow of money, the actions of the powerful, or a prominent tech leader taking advantage of its workforce? Reply to this email and we will work to connect you! And make sure to follow Ryan on Twitter at @RMac18.

In other news…

As the first new month since the COVID-19 lockdowns approached, calls to “cancel rent” for April were everywhere. A tale of two landlords followed. One stepped up like a hero, canceling rent for the tenants in his 18 buildings. The other (who you may recognize) is evicting everyone in sight.

Another side of this story that we saw no reporting on, however, was the fact that not all landlords are rich. As many in the middle class face less and less security and higher and higher bills, a lot of families rent out parts of their homes to tenants so as to afford their own mortgage or rent payments. 

Lioness reader and mom of four Sarah Morgan of Geneseo, NY replied to last week’s newsletter with her own story as a landlord balancing both her family’s own financial situation with doing the ethical thing for her tenant. We’re pleased to report that Lioness helped Sarah get her story published this week.

From our readers

In response to Knocking CEOs Off Their Pedestals…

A Lioness reader pointed out another way that women (and men) are often discriminated against -- in being held back from leadership positions because of their age. 

AB was passed over for a promotion despite her 20 years experience, only to see the position offered to someone with six months’ experience. She began to notice a pattern. The company she worked for had begun encouraging its female employees to make the brand to appear more youthful by wearing “proper fitting clothing.” When the younger employee began implementing new ideas for customer events, AB noticed they were the ideas she had given management in her own job interview. 

She left that job and has begun a new career, where she’s learned all kinds of new skills. Her take? “Companies have to stop looking at older workers as liabilities,” and give them the chance to learn the skills younger employees might possess. Experience is harder to learn than a computer program.

Thanks for your support, readers. Reply to this newsletter with any tips, musings, or a story of your own that you’re not seeing out there in the media landscape.

More next week!

- The team at Lioness