Uber Alles The revelations from the Uber Files — leaks showing the systematic and relentless way Uber changed the world for the worse by courting world leaders, actively breaking the law, and destroying employment conditions — continue. Today The Guardian has a rundown of the media companies Uber courted for favourable coverage:
Uber courted leading media barons across Europe and India with the aim of using their clout to secure more favourable treatment from governments, leaked documents reveal. It asked existing media investors to lobby on its behalf and offered others prized stakes in the company.
The tech company’s charm offensive targeted the owners of publications including the UK’s Daily Mail, France’s Les Echos, Italy’s La Repubblica and L’Espresso, Germany’s Die Welt and Bild and the Times of India. The German deal was discussed internally as a way of gaining political ‘support and influence’ in Germany and Brussels …
The documents show Uber had what it described as a “cash plus media for equity” arrangement with the owners of Die Welt and Bild and the Times of India. The coverage doesn’t mention whether the company pursued companies in Australia — but we always did raise an eyebrow about what favourable-to-indifferent coverage the nation’s mainstream media gave to the gig economy’s effects on workers’ rights (particularly when it was breathlessly covering every new app as the “Uber for …”, regardless of its legality).
Nothing lasts an Eternity Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment to a plum NY job is truly the scandal that keeps on giving, with the state’s ICAC now considering investigating. Addressing a state parliamentary inquiry into the matter yesterday, former Investment NSW bureaucrat Jenny West said the job offer she had received was rescinded last year because, she was told, it was “a present for someone”.
A key player in all of this has been Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown, who previously told the inquiry it was her job to rescind the offer, and who allegedly “outlined an extraordinary list of grievances against West at an in-camera parliamentary inquiry held on June 29, accusing her of inappropriately wasting department resources and embroidering her resume”.
Crikey has been getting some insights into Brown’s approach to the workplace via an interview she did with Christian outlet Eternity News in February. Her management style is modelled on Jesus Christ, apparently, and she confesses to having previously had some skill in planting doubts regarding people she didn’t want to get a promotion. Alas that source is no longer available to us — for whatever reason, Eternity News appear to have taken it down.
Woke up new Is there a mandated minimum use of the word “woke” in The Australian‘s op-ed pages each day? How else to explain the headline “Woke politics has no place in the Catholic Church” above an article criticising the church for failing to make any progress on the status of women?
Not to go all Princess Bride, but… you keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Read the comments As brutal (and horrifically defamatory) as online reviews can be, there’s always something nice about a customer taking the time to properly recognise when someone does a good job. In that spirit, a tipster got in touch to point out we may recognise the Stephen in the following review, who apparently went so far above and beyond for an Apple Store customer:
