Zuckerberg leaps to defence of heckled journalist

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 11 Mar 2008 at 10:35

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has defended Sarah Lacy, after the journalist was heckled by a crowd who accused her of failing to ask the important questions in her interview with him.

Zuckerberg was being interviewed at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Texas, but the audience quickly grew tired of Lacy's line of questioning, which focused on Facebook's image, his age and the company's valuation and began to heckle, demanding answers on privacy issues.

But Zuckerberg thinks she was treated unfairly by the crowd. "I thought she asked some interesting questions," Zuckerberg tells CNet. "We may have not talked about the things that were most relevant to the audience that was here, but I've worked with Sarah on a number of pieces, and I generally think she's really smart and didn't necessarily deserve the reaction that people gave her."

However, Zuckerberg stopped short of criticising those in the crowd, preferring to focus on the good that came out of it. "People shout things out because they're excited and passionate about what we're doing," he says

"People were shouting out things about, like, Beacon and privacy and things like that. Those were good questions for people to ask."