Top tech editor taking heat for Zuckerberg interview — which didn't mention their close friendship, family vacations: report
Jessica Lessin, founder and editor-in-chief of The Information, sat with Zuckerberg on Monday for an interview to promote the launch of the site's new weekday show TITV.
While the pair's friendship is well-known in most media circles, Lessin made no mention of their relationship during the interview and there was no disclosure on the website, according to the published transcript.
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3 The Information's Jessica Lessin interviewed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday.
The Information/Youtube
That's causing a stir among media insiders, some of whom are questioning whether Lessin should have recused herself and handed the interview off to another reporter, according to journalist Oliver Darcy's Status newsletter.
'If you decide to interview someone who you regularly go on vacation with, you should disclose that friendship at the start of the conversation,' a prominent tech reporter told Darcy.
'Readers deserve that context as they consider all the questions you ask – and the ones that you don't.'
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Another tech reporter called the snafu 'an insult to her newsroom,' according to Status.
Lessin and The Information did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment.
The tech editor's relationship with Zuckerberg goes back years, as her husband Sam Lessin won big on Facebook stock he received in 2010 when the Facebook founder – and fellow Harvard pal – bought his startup, according to Vanity Fair.
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Sam later worked as an executive in product management at Facebook for about four years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
3 Sam Lessin and Jessica Lessin at the 11th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony in April.
Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize
The Lessins and Zuckerbergs have vacationed together in Lake Tahoe to celebrate the Fourth of July, according to Status and The New York Times.
Jessica reportedly spent considerable time at Zuckerberg's compound in Hawaii during the COVID-19 pandemic, and her husband was seen alongside the Facebook CEO on a hunt in Kauai decked out in camouflage in a series of photos published by The Daily Mail.
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The tech site editor previously said she does not view her relationship with Zuckerberg as a conflict of interest, and that she would step aside when 'there is something that could stand in the way of me doing my job objectively,' according to a 2021 New York Times report.
3 Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at LlamaCon 2025 in April.
AP
But other journalists have been left scratching their heads as to why Lessin did not recuse herself, especially as The Information pushes its new TITV launch and tries to position itself as a premium publication, according to Status.
Annual subscriptions to The Information cost $399, with a professional version offering access to databases and surveys at nearly $1,000 a year.
The interview itself contained few tough questions for Zuckerberg, Darcy noted in his newsletter, and had a rocky start – with no audio for the first few moments.
Eventually a journalist popped in to announce the glitch and end TITV's inaugural show, and the company published a transcript and video the following day.
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Los Angeles Times
34 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
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