COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 03/10/2019
Mathew Ingram
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t do a lot of off-the-cuff speaking. His public appearances–whether before Congress or at a launch event—tend to be carefully scripted and rehearsed. A cardboard cutout would seem animated by comparison. All of which helps explain some of the excitement surrounding a Verge report this week, consisting of two hours of unedited audio and transcripts of Zuckerberg addressing a town hall at Facebook, including questions from the staff. Although the scoop was heavily promoted, the transcripts didn’t really contain any bombshells—in fact, Zuckerberg himself posted the story in a post on his personal Facebook page, which pretty much guarantees there was nothing earth-shattering in the text.