So this particular story has to do with a BBC interview of RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis now
RIM is the company that has developed the blackberry smart phones and back in twenty
ten they were actually in the middle of a lot of controversy because politicians in
India wanted access to email and messaging messaging that was done through blackberry
so basically they wanted to wiretap and they wanted to use RIM to do that now RIM disputed
this they did not want to allow politicians in India to have the ability to do that however
after everything was said and done they allowed Indian politicians lawful access to it's blackberry
messanger I don't know what lawful access is they don't clarify that but a reporter
for BBC wanted to inquire about that so you're going to see it during the interview and I
want you to pay special attention to how the CEO responds to his question [video clip]
what you've had in terms of security and your various arguments with the Indian government
and a number of governments in the middle east is that anywhere near being sorted out
that's just not fair first of all it's we have no security problems we've got the most
secure why's that not a fair question because you said you implied that we have a security
problem we don't have a security problem well you have an issue no no we don't we've just
been singled out right because we're so successful around the world it's an iconic product it's
used business it's used by leaders it's used by celebrities it's used by consumers it's
used by teenagers we're just singled out you know just because of our success and is being
sorted out now you give that issue is being dealt with we we're dealing with a lot of
issues okay I think that you know we're doing our best to to to deal with the kind of expectations
that we're under and you're confident that we've got a lot of listeners in and viewers
in the middle east and in india do you confidently tell them they're going to have no problems
with being able to use their blackberries and are you going to be able to give them
assurance that everything alright its over interviews over please you can't that word
that's just not fair it's not fair well I sorry it's not fair we've dealt with this
come on this is a national security issue turn that off okay so perfect example of a
reporter from BBC asking an exceptable question a question that he should ask if he's a responsible
reporter and of course the CEO is offended by it he doesn't want to be asked the tough
questions he wants to talk about how awesome RIM is and how awesome Blackberry's are and
how successful they are and then he wants to leave the interview at that doesn't work
that way but I guarantee you that specific reporter from BBC has completely lost access
to the CEO well no question he's lost access to that CEO I don't not sure how it works
in England but the reason that that CEO is so freaked out is because he's used to here
in North America never getting challenged and he keeps saying it's unfair because in
his view these business interviews are one giant ad and it's like he thinks wait a minute
I'm shooting an ad for my company and you're asking something that we don't want asked
that's unfair you know that's they view it here because that's how business reporting
is in America I know several who work at business channels if you're tough on the CEOs you don't
get the CEO interviews if you don't have the CEO interviews you're bosses think that you're
not doing the right job it's important to put the people on air who are the top you
know decision makers et cetra and that's you know how we do our business but you're not
going to put them on air by asking them tough questions they're going to run away from that
right and that's why this guy's like flummoxed right he's like what is this BBC reporter
doing why is he actually asking me questions that I don't agree to and did you notice him
looking off camera in the beginning he's looking at his publicist and the publicist of course
is freaking out like how dare you ask him an actual question that has some journalistic
value how dare you and that's the attitude they have here in the U.S. yeah that is the
attitude they have in the U.S. and that's the reason why we never get the news but I
don't know how you solve that problem because as you mentioned Cenk CEOs politicians people
in power here in North America when when they're asked when they're doing these interviews
they're never asked the tough questions and I don't know how we change that cycle how
do we change it so they can expect to be asked the difficult questions and they don't have
the ability to cut off access well you change it by doing a show and a network that asks
the tough questions and then getting the best possible ratings and then hey listen if you
want to talk to our large audience then you gotta answer the tough questions if you don't
want to talk to our large audience there's plenty of suck ass networks that you can go
on and they will you know do the ad that you want them to do for you and that's why they
don't get the good ratings because people don't trust them.