The 15-year-old son of CNN president Jeff Zucker was given a leadership position at New Jersey senatorial candidate Cory Booker’s tech startup. The teen abruptly resigned after news broke about what critics considered an “inappropriate” arrangement.
Andrew Zucker, the teenage son of CNN’s president, was working an
odd job for children his age. He received stock options from a
tech startup called Waywire in exchange for serving on the
company’s advisory board.
Others on the board include Twitter Vice President Katie Stanton,
journalist and Open Web advocate Jeff Jarvis, AOL executive Susan
Lyne, and former FEC commissioner Trevor Potter. The teen,
however, was hired not for his experience — but for his apparent
insight into popular trends among children his age.
Waywire, a well-funded digital video curation site that
TechCrunch recently described as “Pinterest for video”, was
co-founded by New Jersey senatorial candidate Cory Booker, who
claims he was “not involved at all” in hiring the
15-year-old, CNN reports. Sarah Ross, a tech executive at the
company, allegedly approached the boy after hearing about how he
assisted his dad with tech branding issues at CNN.
But critics have lashed out at the decision, claiming that the
arrangement is inappropriate and noting the multitude of benefits
that each party received. CNN last week wrote a news story on a
fundraiser that Oprah Winfrey was scheduled to hold for Booker,
which might have helped the New Jersey Democrat raise money for
his campaign. And with stock options in a company that
could soon be making billions, the 15-year-old was given a rare
opportunity to potentially be making quick gains just for sharing
his thoughts.
Booker, a New Jersey Democrat known for his networking skills, is
hoping to fill the Senate seat that was vacated by the death of
Frank Lautenberg. He serves as the mayor of Newark, is an active
Twitter user, and is also the co-founder of Waywire, which Oprah
Winfrey and Executive Chairman of Google Eric E. Schmidt invested
in.
“So throwing a bone to one of the most powerful men in media,
by way of corporate equity to his son who can’t even drive, is
savvy, a mix of DC cynicism and Valley ‘disruption’ of common
sense,” writes Gawker’s Sam Biddle. Some critics took to
Twitter, calling the arrangement a “gross nepotism alert.”
Amid questions over his qualifications, the young Zucker abruptly
resigned from his advisory position on Wednesday.
CNN spokeswoman Allison Gollust released a statement on the
decision, stating that the teen stepped down “in order to
avoid even the perception of a conflict.”
The spokeswoman said Zucker’s stock options were “a ‘de
minimus’ number,” and that they will be reverted back to the
company.
Republished from: RT