"Some say" Cory Booker was buying influence with the powerful by giving powerful people's children jobs.
Youth and inexperience are virtues in tech, where a high school dropout can quickly whip together a billion dollar company. But most don't so baldly swap sinecure for favor: in his pursuit of being as well-liked as possible, Booker is using his foundering video startup Waywire to make friends and little else. The place is an investment bucket, providing financial backing from Google's Eric Schmidt, a portal to ultra-lucrative Silicon Valley campaign fundraising, and a board job for Andrew Zucker, 14-year-old son of CNN's media-wrecking president Jeff Zucker.
The New York Times notes Waywire is providing young Andrew with equity in the company in exchange for his position on its perfectly vague advisory board, which includes some notable figures who aren't there because of their dads: Twitter VP Katie Stanton, blowhard media prognosticator Jeff Jarvis, AOL exec Susan Lyne, and—here's a good one for Cory's squad—former FEC commissioner Trevor Potter. A dream team for anyone climbing socially, politically, or financially.
Then CNN aired a fundraiser hosted by Oprah Winfrey for Cory Booker.
Now this:
The 15-year-old son of CNN president Jeff Zucker has resigned from his position on the advisory board of Cory Booker’s start-up after it was revealed that the teenager had a leadership role in the company and receiving stock options for his work.
Hours after the news broke that Zucker’s teenage son Andrew was listed as a member of the video aggregation start-up, a CNN spokesman said that he resigned from the company.
The spokesperson also made a concerted effort to distance Booker, the current Newark mayor who is running for the open New Jersey Senate seat, from the decision to bring the younger Zucker on board.
Except it was 'revealed' a year ago as stated by Gawker in the first link, when the now 15 year old Andrew was only 14 years old.
An unidentified source told CNN Money that Booker himself was ‘not involved at all’ with the decision, and Ms Ross herself admitted at an early stage that the politician would not be a part of the day-to-day operations of the start up.
The New York Times reports that even in the nascent phase, it was clear among the founders that Booker would be a more public role.
When the launched the company, Ms Ross reportedly said to Booker: ‘You know what? You should do it, found the company. Obviously you don’t have to be involved — you’ve got a full-time job. But found the company.’
CNN Money stated it was
unclear what led to the abrupt resignation. Even if Booker wasn't directly involved with hiring the 14 year old he surely knew he was on the advisory board of his company, and could not have thought it inappropriate if he allowed it. Strange how he is now trying to distance himself from the hiring decision. It will be interesting to see if some CNN revelation pops up in the coming days before the NJ Senate primary.
With powerful friends like this Booker is the frontrunner in the Senate primary among a crowded field. Support Rush Holt here.