
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.
Advertisement
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.'
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


NBC News
15 minutes ago
- NBC News
Why a 'mini Trump' is breaking through in Japan
TOKYO — As President Donald Trump's tariffs add to a sense of uncertainty in Japan, more voters here are embracing an idea inspired by their longtime ally the United States: 'Japanese first.' The nationalist slogan helped the right-wing populist party Sanseito make big gains in Japan's parliamentary elections on Sunday, as it capitalized on economic malaise and concerns about immigration and overtourism. Party leader Sohei Kamiya, who since 2022 had held Sanseito's only seat in the upper house of Japan's parliament, will now be joined by 14 others in the 248-seat chamber. It's a far cry from the party's origin as a fringe anti-vaccination group on YouTube during the Covid-19 pandemic. Though Japan has long had a complex relationship with foreigners and its cultural identity, experts say Sanseito's rise is another indication of the global shift to the right embodied and partly fueled by Trump, with populist figures gaining ground in Europe, Britain, Latin America and elsewhere. Kamiya 'fancies himself a mini-Trump' and 'is one of those who Trump has put wind in his sails,' said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies and history at Temple University's Japan campus. Speaking at a rally on Saturday at Tokyo's Shiba Park, Kamiya said his calls for greater restrictions on foreign workers and investment were driven not by xenophobia but by 'the workings of globalization.' He criticized mainstream parties' support for boosting immigration in an effort to address the labor shortage facing Japan's aging and shrinking population. 'Japan is still the fourth-largest economy in the world. We have 120 million people. Why do we have to rely on foreign capital?' Kamiya told an enthusiastic crowd. The election results were disastrous for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is facing calls to resign now that his conservative Liberal Democratic Party — which has ruled almost uninterrupted since the end of World War II — has lost its majority in both houses of parliament. The Japanese leader had also been under pressure to reach a trade deal with the Trump administration, which said Tuesday that the two sides had agreed to a 15% U.S. tariff on Japanese goods. On Wednesday, Ishiba denied reports that he planned to step down by the end of August. The message from his party's string of election losses is that 'people are unhappy,' Kingston said. 'A lot of people feel that the status quo is biased against their interests and it advantages the elderly over the young, and the young feel sort of resentful that they're having to carry the heavy burden of the growing aging population on their back,' he said. Kamiya, 47, an energetic speaker with social media savvy, is also a strong contrast to leaders such as Ishiba and the Constitutional Democrats' Yoshihiko Noda, both 68, who 'look like yesterday's men' and the faces of the establishment, Kingston said. With voters concerned about stagnating wages, surging prices and bleak employment prospects, 'the change-makers got a lot of protest votes from people who feel disenfranchised,' he said. Sanseito's platform resonated with voters such as Yuta Kato. 'The number of [foreign immigrants] who don't obey rules is increasing. People don't voice it, but I think they feel that,' the 38-year-old hairdresser told Reuters in Tokyo. 'Also, the burden on citizens including taxes is getting bigger and bigger, so life is getting more difficult.' The biggest reason Sanseito did well in the election, he said, 'is that they are speaking on behalf of us.' Kamiya's party was not the only upstart to benefit from voter discontent, with the center-right Democratic Party for the People increasing its number of seats in the upper house from five to 16. Sanseito, whose name means 'Participate in Politics,' originated in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, attracting conservatives with YouTube videos promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines and pushing back against mask mandates. Its YouTube channel now has almost 480,000 subscribers. The party has also warned about a 'silent invasion' of foreigners in Japan, where the number of foreign residents rose more than 10% last year to a record of almost 3.8 million, according to the Immigration Services Agency. It remains far lower as a proportion of the population than in the U.S. or Europe, however. Critics say such rhetoric has fueled hate speech and growing hostility toward foreigners in Japan, citing a survey last month by Japanese broadcaster NHK and others in which almost two-thirds of respondents agreed that foreigners received 'preferential treatment.' At the Sanseito rally on Saturday, protesters held up signs that said 'No Hate' and 'Racists Go Home.' Kamiya denies that his party is hostile to foreigners in Japan. 'We have no intention of discriminating against foreigners, nor do we have any intention of inciting division,' he said Monday. 'We're just aiming to firmly rebuild the lives of Japanese people who are currently in trouble.' Despite its electoral advances, Sanseito doesn't have enough members in the upper house to make much impact on its own and has only three seats in the more powerful lower house. The challenge, Kingston said, is whether Kamiya can 'take this anger, the malaise, and bring his show nationwide.'


USA Today
44 minutes ago
- USA Today
Steelers announce Pat McAfee Show is headed to training camp: here's what fans should know
The Pittsburgh Steelers just announced that one of the most entertaining sports talk shows is heading to Latrobe. On Friday, the Steelers announced that The Pat McAfee Show is headed to training camp on July 30 — a spectacle fans won't want to miss, with the gates opening at 11 a.m. EST. A little over a month ago, Aaron Rodgers invited and implored McAfee to host his show at training camp — and after some discussion with the crew, he agreed. McAfee, a born and raised Yinzer, turned the Steel City upside down with his successful Big Night AHT show back in April — captivating Pittsburgh sports fans with surprise appearances from legends like Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger, Penguins' Sidney Crosby, and even Pirates' phenom Paul Skenes. Fans should expect a heavy dose of hilarious Steelers interviews from the training camp edition of The Pat McAfee Show — and arguably the most entertaining appearances would be Rodgers, Mike Tomlin, Cameron Heyward, or the new highest-paid non-quarterback, T.J. Watt. For up-to-date Steelers coverage, follow us on X @TheSteelersWire and give our Facebook page a like.


New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Soundside Music Festival in Connecticut cancels 2025 event over ‘circumstances beyond our control'
Party's over. Connecticut's popular Soundside Music Festival shocked fans when it abruptly cancelled its star-studded event two months before its opening day. 'Due to circumstances beyond our control, [the] Soundside Music Festival has been cancelled,' organizers announced in a statement on the festival's official website on Friday. 'Tickets will be refunded to the original method of payment in as little as 30 days depending on your bank's processing time.' Advertisement 4 The Soundside Music Festival was cancelled on Friday. NBC CT/Instagram Festival organizers didn't go into detail about what caused the cancellation. Thomas Gaudett, the chief administrative officer for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, alleged the festival was having trouble selling tickets, according to the CT Insider. Advertisement 'It's our understanding that this year's lineup was drawing a lot fewer attendees than we have seen in the last few years,' Gaudett told the outlet. 'And that may have had an impact on the decision to cancel.' The cancellation allegedly blindsided Bridgeport officials, who insisted the city was 'not involved in the decision-making process' and were told the project was being pulled after the decision was 'finalized,' the outlet added. The Post reached out to the festival for comment. 4 The festival already announced its lineup before the event was cancelled. Ticketmaster Advertisement The festival was originally scheduled for Sept. 27 and 28 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport. It had already announced a massive lineup of alternative and electronic dance artists, including The Killers, Weezer, Hozier, Vampire Weekend, Alex Warren, and DJO. The festival wiped its social media accounts, including its Instagram and Facebook pages, which had over 52,000 combined followers after the announcement. Fans have complained about ticket prices in recent months, according to a public Facebook fan page for the festival. Advertisement General admission for a single-day ticket to the festival started at $170, according to the Soundside Music Festival's now-deleted ticket page. 'Maybe if they weren't so greedy with the high ticket cost there would have been higher volume of tickets sold,' one Facebook user speculated on the fan page. 'I personally wasn't into the lineup this year, but everyone has different taste,' another added. 4 The Killers were scheduled to headline on Saturday. 4 Hozier was announced as the headliner on Sunday. Getty Images Last year, the festival had record attendance, with 57,000 concertgoers swarming the waterfront festival — despite the Foo Fighters dropping out late, according to the CT Post. Officials had expected 32,000 people to show up. The Foo Fighters withdrew from the headlining gig after frontman Dave Grohl revealed that he cheated on his wife, Jordyn Blum, and welcomed a daughter outside of his marriage. Previous headliners included John Mayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Nicks and Dave Matthews. The inaugural Sound on Sound festival, which was eventually rebranded as the Soundside Music Festival last year, took place in 2022 and was produced by Governor's Ball producers Tom Russell and Jordan Wolowitz, Live Nation, and developer Howard Saffan, according to CT Insider.