Pivot - Hot Take: Scott Galloway on Bezos vs. AMI [BOOM!]

Episode Date: February 8, 2019

BONUS episode: Scott couldn't wait to tell Pivot listeners what he thinks about Bezos' post accusing the National Inquirer of extortion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Scott Galloway from the Vox Media Podcast Network with a special pivot report. Where is Kara Swisher? I'm here solo. Kara is likely getting a pedicure with Senator Schumer or having her feet rubbed by Evan Spiegel. But I digress. The biggest news story likely of 2019 unfolding and we wanted to share some reactions and some predictions. We have the wealthiest man in the world, a media company, potentially POTUS and Saudis, and Digpix, the ultimate amalgamer chemistry for a big media story and big it is. So, winners and losers. Winners, Mr. Bezos. America loves an individual who turns around when he or she is being bullied and kicks the bully in the nuts. And that's what Mr. Bezos has done. He has

turned chicken shit into chicken salad. His reputation isn't as strong as it was 30 days ago, but it's a lot stronger than it was 24 hours ago. And to be fair, he's shown pretty dramatic leadership here. And that is putting a lot of humiliation and personal privacy at risk to say, no, I'm not going to be a party to this. The worst business decision over the last 12 months until about 24 hours ago was the wealthiest man in the world deciding to send out pictures of his junk. But that's been bested. The dumb and dumber of business decisions here dumb and dumber business decisions here, the dumber decision, the worst business decision of the last 12 months is a media company deciding to try and blackmail the wealthiest man in the world via email. So the biggest loser,

hands down, is AMI, who as of last night is out of business. They just don't know it yet. There are jaguars in the reeds laying in wait to strike, and Peter Thiel was that billionaire. This is Thiel versus Gawker all over again with a similar outcome, except AMI hasn't poked the bear. They have poked the megalodon. The most creative, aggressive mind and the most resourced individual in the history of business, is no longer focused on disrupting books, no longer focused on disrupting the cloud, but is focused on destruction of AMI. They have fucked with the wrong hombre. A big winner no one's talking about, Medium.

Mr. Bezos didn't post to Facebook. He didn't go on Jimmy Kimmel. He posted to Facebook. He didn't go on Jimmy Kimmel. He posted to medium. Evan Williams becomes that rare breed of entrepreneur who has birthed not one, but now two unicorns. As of yesterday, about 2% of the American public had ever heard of medium. It's now likely 30 or 40. Another loser, POTUS. And this is pure speculation, but a tell in law enforcement when someone is going 45 in the fast lane is they are hiding something and they get pulled over.

POTUS has been eerily quiet about this whole situation since January 4th. Why? He's guilty. He knows something. He and AMI were clearly collaborating, and we have not seen that card turned over here. Look for POTUS, similar to Facebook, that every time we think something is bad, it ends up not being as bad as we thought but worse. Saudis, POTUS, and the outing of these photos, the three are connected.

And finally, what good can come from this? Jeff Bezos, his terrible judgment around this is meaningful. But what is profound is the public health crisis we are facing as the digitization of mistakes begins to wreak havoc in our society, specifically as it relates to our young people. We have a 54-year-old man who made a terrible mistake, but we have young people who every day make terrible mistakes with their phones. And while Mr. Bezos has likely lost sleep, is likely going to lose some shareholder value, he deep down knows he is going to be fine. But does the 15 or the 16-year-old boy or girl who's made a mistake with his or her phone, do they know they're going to be all right? Or are they lying in silence? Is the mental anguish they're enduring a public

health risk? It is no accident that teen depression is escalating. It's no accident that suicide rates among young girls is skyrocketing. We need to have a conversation around how we develop the immunities against the digitization of our mistakes. There are people suffering out there. It's important that conversations take place in our schools, in our households. I know personally, I'm going to sit down with my 11-year-old boy tonight and not only give him a stern warning about these technologies, which I think a lot of institutions and people are doing, but also to reassure him that if and when he ever makes a mistake, that we are here for him and he should never suffer alone and in the dark.

This is Scott Galloway from the Vox Media Podcast Network.