Omar L. Gallaga writes about technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman. He's worked for more than nine years at the Austin American-Statesman and edited Technopolis, the newspaper's personal tech section, and ¡ahora sí!, Austin's Spanish-language newspaper. He's been a writer and performer with Austin's award-winning Latino Comedy Project and is a contributing writer for Television Without Pity, MSNBC.com's books section and The Almost Late Show with Bobby Bones. He writes a comic strip, "Space Monkeys!" with his brother, Pablo, and lives in New Braunfels with his wife and three technologically savvy cats.
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Journalist Sarah Lacy, who interviewed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his South by Southwest Interactive keynote, is already laughing off The Incident.
Saying she’s used to rough treatment as a woman covering technology, she seemed in high spirits after the Austin Convention Center was ground zero for a public flogging of the journalist.
SXSW is a tough crowd. I'm a woman and I was a panelist last year. I never felt like I was judged by my gender... the audience just wants you to prove you know your stuff.
I didn't see the keynote, but I'm shocked by her arrogance in this interview. Good journalists know the story isn't about them -- it's about their subjects. Although, maybe she's just being defensive in this interview?
As someone that was there, I have to say some of the heckling was justified.
It's not that she's a woman, an outsider, or anything else.
It's that she's arrogant, oblivious to the people around her, and she wasn't doing a good job asking questions.
Put simply, she was like a SXSW version of Michael Scott - has good intentions but is totally unaware of how people were really reacting to it. In the video clip above, she says everything was fine, people were laughing, until the last 10 minutes. What she failed to realize is that people were mostly laughing at her...her long-winded stories, her attempts to try and embarrass Mark by talking about burning books or bring up his age for the 10982343 time, her letting the cat out of the bag about Facebook's launch in France, then not seeming remorseful about that at all, and so on.
It was tough to watch - some very awkward moments, and even Mark had some quips towards her, although his tone suggests he wasn't being malicious, just reacting to the situation. The best example of this is after Sarah makes fun of Mark for never saying "more than two words" back to her, he simply says "ask me some questions". The crowd ROARS with applause, hoping she would take the hint. She never really did.
She's still gabbing too much and not in a professional manner...I can see where her "style" could be annoying. Plus, if that many people didn't like it, its best to accept that maybe you did something wrong?
Yeah -- #19,482 in Books is really through the roof.
And, agreed, zj. There's no doubt that women are just as competent as men in journalism, technology, and any other field. But for her to use that as an excuse for incompetence -- hers and hers alone -- is astonishingly and inexcusably backward.
I think she meant either pre-orders of the book or people coming to the book's Amazon page. I didn't get a chance to follow up with her on that (she was on her way to another party).
Her Amazon rating is "through the roof"? According to the post of her upcoming first book, she has no rating...? Where are the ratings 'through the roof'?
Seriously, it was incredibly harsh and ridiculous of the audience. I've seen less warm reactions to female panelists in general at the SXSW interactive, but I think her gender wasn't the only thing against her. I think she is also viewed as an outsider. Also, the people here worship Zuckerburg and I think she rubbed them thewrong way by not putting 100% of the focus on him.Who knows, though - I am an outsider here myself and don't quite understand the mentality.
As a woman in the technology industry, working with a team of IT and web usability specialists (who are all women) at a very successful start-up... it irks me that sarah lacey is using her gender as a crutch to suck at her job in this field. Other women kick a*s! Sorry you don't.
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By ap
March 12, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this
SXSW is a tough crowd. I'm a woman and I was a panelist last year. I never felt like I was judged by my gender... the audience just wants you to prove you know your stuff.
I didn't see the keynote, but I'm shocked by her arrogance in this interview. Good journalists know the story isn't about them -- it's about their subjects. Although, maybe she's just being defensive in this interview?
By mike
March 11, 2008 12:08 AM | Link to this
As someone that was there, I have to say some of the heckling was justified.
It's not that she's a woman, an outsider, or anything else.
It's that she's arrogant, oblivious to the people around her, and she wasn't doing a good job asking questions.
Put simply, she was like a SXSW version of Michael Scott - has good intentions but is totally unaware of how people were really reacting to it. In the video clip above, she says everything was fine, people were laughing, until the last 10 minutes. What she failed to realize is that people were mostly laughing at her...her long-winded stories, her attempts to try and embarrass Mark by talking about burning books or bring up his age for the 10982343 time, her letting the cat out of the bag about Facebook's launch in France, then not seeming remorseful about that at all, and so on.
It was tough to watch - some very awkward moments, and even Mark had some quips towards her, although his tone suggests he wasn't being malicious, just reacting to the situation. The best example of this is after Sarah makes fun of Mark for never saying "more than two words" back to her, he simply says "ask me some questions". The crowd ROARS with applause, hoping she would take the hint. She never really did.
By sxsw
March 10, 2008 11:35 PM | Link to this
She's still gabbing too much and not in a professional manner...I can see where her "style" could be annoying. Plus, if that many people didn't like it, its best to accept that maybe you did something wrong?
By Bob
March 10, 2008 11:02 PM | Link to this
Yeah -- #19,482 in Books is really through the roof.
And, agreed, zj. There's no doubt that women are just as competent as men in journalism, technology, and any other field. But for her to use that as an excuse for incompetence -- hers and hers alone -- is astonishingly and inexcusably backward.
By Omar Gallaga
March 10, 2008 3:45 PM | Link to this
I think she meant either pre-orders of the book or people coming to the book's Amazon page. I didn't get a chance to follow up with her on that (she was on her way to another party).
By christiner
March 10, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this
Her Amazon rating is "through the roof"? According to the post of her upcoming first book, she has no rating...? Where are the ratings 'through the roof'?
By V
March 10, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this
Seriously, it was incredibly harsh and ridiculous of the audience. I've seen less warm reactions to female panelists in general at the SXSW interactive, but I think her gender wasn't the only thing against her. I think she is also viewed as an outsider. Also, the people here worship Zuckerburg and I think she rubbed them thewrong way by not putting 100% of the focus on him.Who knows, though - I am an outsider here myself and don't quite understand the mentality.
By zj
March 10, 2008 12:54 AM | Link to this
As a woman in the technology industry, working with a team of IT and web usability specialists (who are all women) at a very successful start-up... it irks me that sarah lacey is using her gender as a crutch to suck at her job in this field. Other women kick a*s! Sorry you don't.