CBS backs HP chairwoman ousted in spy scandal

FORMER HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn's claims that her involvement was all the cunning plan of fellow board member Tom Perkins, and his evil side-kick CEO Mark Hurd to get rid of her.

In a gesture of support, CBS's 60 minutes allowed the cameras to roll as Dunn laid into Perkins without giving the bloke a chance to put his side of the story. Perkins was on his boat when CBS called, so 60 minutes decided not to give him the benefit of the doubt.

If you believe Dunn, she knew nothing of the spying scandal, but had been placed in the role of ring-leader by cunning Perkins.

She also implied that HP CEO Mark Hurd was also responsible for making sure that the finger pointed firmly at her. CBS would have to ask why Hurd, who replaced her as Chairman, might do such a thing Dunn said. CBS didn't.

Dunn said that the investigation identified Jay Keyworth as the source of many of the leaks. Perkins wanted to keep that secret from the full board, because they were mates, but Patricia wouldn't let him. CBS reminded viewers that his new boat is the most expensive private sailboat ever built and he has oodles of cash as he bankrolled AOL, Google and Amazon.

Of course it ignored the fact that Dunn is not short of a bob or two either, even if she just had to stand down from her position as non-executive vice chairwoman of Barclays Global Investors yesterday. CBS implied that after he had quit the board Perkins blew the whistle on HP's leak investigation and began a campaign of deceit about her.

Dunn said that Perkins' disinformation set the mindset for basically everything that's believed about this right now.

She said that if you have enough money and you're willing to spend enough, you can buy and sell somebody's reputation.

CBS tried to back up Dunn's claim that Perkins was behind all the scheming by showing an interview with former HP Chairwoman Carly Fiorina. Fiorina confirmed that Perkins was confirming to the Wall Street Journal that people had it in for her too.

More here. µ