XM CEO in the hotseat over Stern, Dr. Laura at CES

[rtt2]

XM CEO in the hotseat over Stern, Dr. Laura at CES

XM CEO in the hotseat over Stern, Dr. Laura at CES
Shown here, a snapshot of XM's CEO Hugh Panero at the CES show in Vegas today. If he looks like he has a terrible headache, that's because Jason Calacanis just gave him one. Jason says:

We just got back from the XM press conference at CES and we got to ask him two questions -- we made them zingers of course:

Question one: “What impact do you think Howard Stern going to Sirius is going to have on your business, and how close did you come to signing him?” As you can see from his expression he was really excited about answering this one).

Question two: “Dr. Laura over the past couple of years said that gay people are biological errors. You talked before about decisive programming (i.e. Stern), I wonder what XM’s position is on hate speech was and if you condone it. And why would you associate yourself with her after you said you wouldn’t associate with Howard Stern because of controversy issues. Are you going to lose subscribers, and do you feel gay people are biological errors?”


Link to post: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000730026180/

Link to video for the Stern/Sirius question (WMV): http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/videos/ces/cesxmonstern.wmv

and link to the Dr. Laura question (WMV): http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/videos/ces/cesxmondrlaura.wmv

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I was there for that, at First Huh answered him, then the guy shouted out another question something like when will XM add the KKK channel.

Hugh Ignored him.

Interestingly enough after the press conference was over Hugh went and sat down and talked with the guy. That showed me what a class act Hugh Panero is.

 

[cdru]

I think the first question was a good question, but Hugh just side stepped the question and ever answered it. You knew what he wanted to say, but he never said it.

The second question was just dumb and increased exponentially with the addition of the KKK comment. I thought Hugh did a good job directly answering the question. Dr. Laura I think is quite a ways away from hate speech. People may not always agree with were, or even agree at all, but that's why you have a choice. If you don't like to listen to her, tune into one of the other 100 channels. Kudos for him realizing that guy from engadget.com just wanted to be a dick with his follow up question.