While I thought the reaction to his comments was overblown (A poorly worded but passionate defense of his support of school vouchers), the NAACP called on him to apologize. Of course, Byrne being Byrne, he refused.
The part that offends me is that Byrne put out a press release using the money of Overstock shareholders to defend his stupidity (the release was disseminated on Market Wire):
"Recently, video-taped comments I made in a school voucher debate setting were edited and posted online. Subsequently, some journalists erroneously claimed that I dismissed these statements as having been taken out of context. This assertion is false. In fact, my claim is far stronger: the clip is a lie, because it inverted what I actually said, which is far worse than simply being 'taken out of context'.
Not content to apologize for his comment about burning kids, Byrne is now burning Overstock's money to defend himself. Why is Byrne using shareholders' money to defend comments he made in a personal political crusade that has nothing to do with the company?
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-02-2007 @ 9:08PM
Doodoo Brown said...
why, of all public interest groups, did the NAACP call on Byrne to apologize? is the NAACP RACIST to assume that only blacks student don't graduate from high school?
since there are way more whites than blacks in this country, aren't the majority of students who deserve to be burnt then, white?
11-03-2007 @ 2:01AM
Troy said...
I prefer Smargbargains.com instead.
http://mymoviefriend.com/yellowbrickroad.html
11-03-2007 @ 5:35AM
stephenie said...
I TOTALLY agree with what he said, and I'm black. The NAACP is so far out of touch with our people, they can't make an educated decision. We (as a people) are worse off now than blacks were 50-60 years ago. Black people need to wake up. Illiteracy, poverty, and crime are not the corner-stones of our culture. We have so much potential to do great things. Harriet Tubman told slaves she was freeing in the antebellum south that if they didn't go with her and escape to freedom, she would kill them herself. It sounds harsh, but it was the rigt attitude to have.
11-04-2007 @ 5:51AM
Dan Barnett said...
Ms. Stephanie, I agree that Illiteracy, poverty, & crime are not the cornerstones of Black Culture, but I must disagree when you say Blacks are worse off now that 50-60 years ago. I still remember driving past the community swimming pool (my mother wouldn't let me actually go to a segregated pool) with the crowds waving signs saying "Nigger go Home" as the pool was being forced to intergrate. In fact they closed it down rather that allow blacks in. Bad as things are now we have made some progress. We all need to do more, but burning people, even if only rhetorically, is not an answer.
12-31-2007 @ 9:08AM
Frank Dappah said...
Well. I will admit, the guy is a bit unusual, but I think the media has been too harsh on Byrne, He runs a pretty solid company and is infact plagued by the same problem Bezos was with Amazon.com. these guys tend to invest too much of shareholders' money in technological projects which do not add to the bottom line . online retailers want to buy crap and cheap crap at that, most of them do not want to know what yopu are selling till we are ready to buy. As for the comment about burning yad yadda yadda, Byrne is a very out-spoken guys, whe has a few PR issues that coupled with his passion for education reform, not to mention the media's hard-on for him. when you put these together you have him saying things he did not mean to say in that way and a lot of people saying what they think they heard him say.