Astronomer CEO's viral Coldplay moment reminds us: We're all being watched all the time
On Thursday, the CEO of tech company Astronomer was captured on the Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert, seemingly committing marital infidelity with an employee. A TikTok of the incident went mega-viral, racking up 56 million views in 24 hours on that platform alone, while also exploding across every other social media site, not to mention countless group chats.
There's something eerie, though, about how quickly and completely an apparent personal indiscretion became universal content. It's a cautionary tale for a new era of public shaming.
The Jumbotron Moment Heard 'round the World blew up at such an incendiary level, on a bustling news day, for many reasons. The clumsy, deeply human way that the CEO and his employee seemed to realize they were suddenly visible, and then struggled to teleport out of sight, is almost objectively funny.
It's also a cross-cultural story, encompassing the worlds of tech, music, and general human interest. Few current events, after all, get an equal amount of coverage at both PopCrave and Business Insider.
The story also seemed to resonate because Coldplay might be the most memeable band that could've been involved in such a situation, inspiring countless jokes on social media about not wanting to be caught dead at a Coldplay concert.
But the reason the Jumbotron moment has not only captured so much attention but sustained it is because, after becoming a matter of public consumption, the story metastasized into a saga.
The more people found out what happened, the more unresolved variables they unearthed, including how the spouses of both the CEO and the employee reacted, what the board at Astronomer thinks of the incident, and how the CEO will address all of this.
What we do in the shadows
Jumbotrongate is now more than just a viral moment—to many online observers, it's become an irresistibly spicy parasocial true-crime drama, one unfolding in real time, rather than in a Netflix docuseries.
The apparently grueling wait for a statement from the CEO has inspired chaos agents to release multiple bogus apologies online.
A Facebook posting of one of the fakes late on Thursday night has already garnered 55,000 reactions and 14,000 comments. This impatience to hear directly from the person at the center of a massively viral, still-developing saga recalls one of the earliest, broadest, and most notorious examples of online shaming— the Justine Sacco incident.
Just before Christmas in 2013, Sacco, a senior PR executive, sent an ill-advised tweet as she boarded an 11-hour flight to South Africa. 'Going to Africa,' the tweet began, before taking a turn for the controversial: 'Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!'
Although Sacco had a relatively paltry following of less than 200 people at the time, the tone-deaf tweet came to the attention of a writer at Gawker, who helped it go tremendously, globally viral.
The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet quickly became inescapable on Twitter, driving more communal anticipation to find out what would happen next than arguably any public event since O.J. Simpson's white Bronco chase 20 years earlier.
The incident sparked both a wave of public shaming and an awareness of how it changing people's lives. (Sacco was let go from her job at InterActive Corp., though she was later rehired in a different role.) In the years to come, people would be shamed for killing a beloved lion during a hunting trip, for threatening to call the police on a Black man under false pretenses, and for appearing to masturbate during a work Zoom.
What is now happening with the CEO of Astronomer, however, is a completely different beast.
What he did may be perceived as morally objectionable and sleazy but it's ultimately a private matter that managed to break containment and reach a global audience.
Who deserves anonymity?
Sacco may not have deserved the level of attention wrought by her tweet in 2013, but unlike the Astronomer CEO's conduct, her offensive joke was something that she felt comfortable broadcasting to the world.
Meanwhile, as an American abroad, being in a crowd of thousands in an Australian arena during a Coldplay concert must have felt like the most anonymous place in the world. If the lesson from #HasJustineLanded was 'Be careful what you tweet,' the one from this saga is more like, 'Be careful what you do anywhere at any time.'
There's certainly something satisfying about seeing an apparent cheater get his comeuppance, but those celebrating it might be a little too comfortable living in a surveillance state. Most people have an implicit understanding that Nest camera footage or Alexa recordings might come up in court, and that we each leave a gigantic breadcrumb trail of data behind us wherever we go online, but it's easy to convince ourselves that the Sauron's eye-like panopticon will never turn on us personally.
The Astronomer CEO's turn in the barrel should be seen as a warning that no matter who or where you are, a camera is never far away, and it's probably aimed in your direction.
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Forbes
a few seconds ago
- Forbes
Dear Media's Co-Founder Michael Bosstick Says Acquisition Of Fitness Platform Obé 'Just Made A Ton Of Sense'
Paige Port, Lauryn Bosstick and Michael Bosstick of Dear Media Dear Media—which has billed itself in the podcast market as the largest podcast network for women—is merging deeper into the wellness space with the acquisition of digital fitness platform obé Fitness, also bringing obé co-founder Mark Mullett on as Dear Media's President of Global Entertainment and Business Development. While many of Dear Media's nearly 100 shows focus on wellness content specifically—like Arielle Lorre's aptly titled 'Well' and Dr. Will Cole's 'The Art of Being Well,' for example—the obé acquisition is a deeper dive into the space. Founded in 2018 by former CAA talent agents Mullett and Ashley Mills, obé differentiated itself through its entertainment content, partnering with Hollywood studios to translate movies and television shows into fitness. (It, for example, offered a Sex and the City-themed workout class among its many offerings, which E! News, using a word known to fans of the hit HBO show, reported was 'absof—kinglutely not your ordinary workout.') It will now live as a standalone platform within Dear Media, the company said in a release. Like obé, Dear Media was also founded in 2018, it by Michael Bosstick and Lauryn Evarts Bosstick, who are not only co-founders but also married and also co-hosts of 'The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast,' one of Dear Media's most popular shows. The show's title stems off of The Skinny Confidential, now a self-care product brand operating within Dear Media that originally began as a blog started by Lauryn back in 2011. The couple's 'Him & Her' show began in 2016—two years before Dear Media's launch. Michael Bosstick 'You have to imagine, at that period of time, there was very little female representation,' Michael tells me on Zoom, explaining that the space was filled with 'the Gary Vaynerchuks, the Joe Rogans, the Rich Rolls, the Tim Ferrisses, 'Serial,' NPR, 'How I Built This.''' 'It was a lot of the OG podcasts that we respect and admire, but there was very little female representation,' he says. 'We had met a bunch of other female hosts and realized that they were really struggling to find their footing in the market. They were struggling to monetize, they were struggling to rank on the charts. And for Lauryn and I, at the time looking at it, it didn't make a lot of sense.' Their mission, he says, was to even out the charts: 'Let's give these women their fair shot at earning the same kind of incomes that some of the men were earning,' Michael says of Dear Media's impetus. 'Let's give the female advertisers an audience and the ability to be represented in the space. I think over time we've really done a good job as a company to even out those charts now where this conversation is maybe becoming not as much of an issue as it was then. And I feel really proud of Dear Media for doing that.' Now based in Austin, Texas, Dear Media's revenue falls between $51 million and $100 million, 'moving closer towards the latter than the former,' Michael tells me. 'We're doing well.' The obé acquisition—announced June 23, though the specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed—seems evidence of that. Mullett tells me that he will continue to oversee obé's 'continued evolution' but will also take on a larger role within Dear Media to 'amplify and expand how we show up as a leading media and entertainment company of the future.' Mark Mullett 'The goal of the acquisition is to build upon how Dear Media can best serve our growing audience in and beyond our show expectations,' he says. 'We'll continue to expand our owned and operated channels to drive deeper engagement, while growing our slate of talent and IP through the creation and acquisition of new programming.' As has long been Dear Media's approach, Mullett says that he is looking to 'create more brand extensions across commerce, longform content, events and publishing, always with an eye toward our 360 approach of engaging a host's audience across every platform while their content can be consumed.' The acquisition, he adds, 'also provides Dear Media with obé's tech infrastructure and world-class tech team to create even more opportunities for the shows and audiences to engage with.' The aforementioned 360 approach refers to Dear Media's goal of helping its hosts monetize through various channels beyond just advertising dollars; take, for example, Lauryn, who not only hosts a show as part of the Dear Media network but also still runs her The Skinny Confidential blog and has now expanded into products ranging from ice rollers to mouth tape to, intriguingly, toilet paper. E-commerce, publishing, events and longform content are also encouraged by Dear Media as avenues of growth for its creators, with their respective podcasts as their springboards and launchpads. The Dear Media 360 model ranges from show conception to audio and video production, distribution, marketing, social, monetization and more, seeking to not just host podcasts, but incubate brands. Lauryn Evarts Bosstick speaks onstage during the SIMPLY Los Angeles Fashion + Beauty Conference ... More Powered By NYLON at The Grove on July 15, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor Simply) Shows can either begin with a host and become a brand, or can begin with a brand that becomes a host; shows can also be built from the ground up or acquired and scaled. 'The blog and podcast created the foundation to launch The Skinny Confidential clean beauty and wellness brand,' Lauryn tells me. 'I focused on growing a community and building an engaged audience, constantly interacting over DM and email to crowdsource their opinion on everything from colors to texture to packaging. The audience felt like co-creators—by the time the products were launched, they were deeply invested in every step of the process.' 'The Skinny Confidential became the model for Dear Media's 360 approach,' she continues. 'Once you have the show, it's about figuring out ways to expand the creator's brand—whether through product lines, events, publishing or any other extension. The first step is to give the audience consistent value through content. The next step is to double down on what they're asking for, then the last step is to launch the brand extension to engage them further.' Amanda Hirsch, host of "Not Skinny But Not Fat" Shows under the Dear Media umbrella include genres like fashion, beauty, health and wellness, pop culture, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and parenting. According to the company, after being acquired by Dear Media, a show sees between 25 to 50 percent growth, both in audience and revenue, and shows include the beauty podcast 'Breaking Beauty'; the beauty and wellness podcast 'Life with Marianna' (hosted by Summer Fridays co-founder Marianna Hewitt); the parenting podcast 'Raising Good Humans,' hosted by Dr. Aliza Pressman; the pop culture podcast 'Not Skinny But Not Fat,' hosted by Amanda Hirsch; and other shows ranging from 'Dear Gabby' (hosted by author and spiritual teacher Gabrielle Bernstein) to Kristin Cavallari's 'Let's Be Honest,' sisters Erin Foster and Sara Foster's 'The World's First Podcast,' Whitney Port's 'With Whit' and Khloé Kardashian's 'Khloé in Wonderland.' Dear Media's leadership—its co-founders Michael and Lauryn and its president Paige Port—actually host podcasts themselves, which helps them relate better to the talent. (In addition to the Bossticks' 'Him & Her,' Port hosts 'DITL,' short for 'Day in the Life.') As Michael tells me, Dear Media 'was built by talent for talent.' Khloé Kardashian interviewing Kris Jenner for "Khloé in Wonderland" Port has been with the Bossticks building Dear Media from the ground up. 'Sitting in both seats and really understanding the need on both sides of 'How do we build a media company, but how do we also support talent?' was something that resonated with me early on,' she tells me over Zoom. 'And I think that because of that sort of superpower, we've been able to be a first mover. Because we are so connected to every single part and process of the business, I feel like we're able to sort of innovate on a daily basis to push our business forward—I don't think most media executives are in that same sort of situation.' Port says the company's focused vision and disciplined deals have been key factors why their 'bets have paid off': 'Because of that, there is this trust here, but there's also that if you are going to build a show within Dear Media and a brand, that we can really service it and add value and grow it,' she says, adding, 'We do know how to grow an audience here.' 'I think that what we have built over the last almost a decade is a brand built around trust and integrity and knowing that Dear Media will do right by talent and by a show,' Port continues. 'I think that we see partnerships in a really creative way. I think that we have an entire team here that lives and breathes this content and understands our hosts and our talents and the partnerships and how they make sense.' Paige Port To this, Michael adds, 'We actually step in with the right resources and the right capabilities and help them actually grow a brand with longevity. And I think that's something that we're very proud of.' The recent obé acquisition 'just made a ton of sense,' he adds, noting that obé began with a similar mission as Dear Media, primarily speaking to women—obé doing so specifically through fitness. 'The alignment made a ton of sense, and it gives us now the credibility to service this audience and our creators in a different way, and maybe stand up our own premium channels that haven't existed,' Michael says. Even as Dear Media grows through the acquisition of obé, the company hasn't deviated from its original ethos of amplifying female voices, he says. 'We still have a huge focus on female voices,' Michael tells me. 'We always will. That's just the lane we've chosen, but the business is mature enough now where I feel like we've almost accomplished a lot of what we initially set out to do, and now it's just the norm [with both] men and women in this space.' Lauryn Bosstick, Paige Port, and Michael Bosstick 'I think a lot of companies, they say they're going to do something but they don't actually do it,' Michael adds of what sets Dear Media apart. 'We've actually put our money where our mouth is, and we've produced a wide genre of content across so many different categories and topics. I really think when I see what the company has put forward and the people we've represented—I feel really good about it.'
CBS News
a few seconds ago
- CBS News
Bridget Everett on how she ended up as "Somebody Somewhere"
Bridget Everett will try to tell you she's not a celebrity in Manhattan, Kansas, but don't believe her. She did grow up here, one of six kids, so there's that. "I just love that it still feels like small-town America," she said. "I come back quite a bit and I visit the same spots." But it was when her HBO show "Somebody Somewhere" was set here in Manhattan, that Everett became a bon fide local legend. The show follows Sam Miller (played by Everett), who moves back to her hometown in her 40s, trying to figure out herself, and life, after the death of her sister. Everett was a writer, producer, and lead actor in the semi-autobiographical series. "I was like, 'Is anybody going to watch this? This is not a cool show!'" she said. "You know, like, it's about friendship. I'm not a top model, you know? I don't want to speak for anybody else in the cast! But I think that's exactly kind of why it works." Unlike her character on the show, who returns home to Manhattan, Kansas, Everett stayed in Manhattan, New York, for years, working mostly as a waitress and using, believe or not, karaoke as her main creative outlet. "My way of connecting with people is through singing," she said. "It kind of always has been, and it's easier for me to unlock and kind of be who I really want to be when I'm singing. Those karaoke performances led to her own, now-legendary cabaret shows at the famed Joe's Pub in New York. Everett's performances are sort of unlike anything you've seen, and so risqué we can't show you much of it here on "Sunday Morning." Everett said, "What's interesting to me is, like, learning about people, and why am I up there with no bra and a low-cut thing with everything flying around? It's part of who I am, and I also kind of do it to understand myself, honestly. I like to talk about my family in this way because my family and I don't talk about it. I don't see a mental health care professional!" And that's the amazing part: Everett's cabaret shows somehow end up being, in part anyway, a meditation on life and grief, including saying goodbye to her father, as well as the loss of her mother, sister, and her beloved dog, Poppy, whom she called the love of her life. "For a while I felt a little bit of shame saying that, because romantic love is kind of what most people aspire to," Everett said. "My life is driven in a different way. She just taught me how to love, and she just cracked my heart open in a way that, like, no other person could." In fact, it was this side of Everett that HBO and the show's creators wanted to highlight – the way we can feel both strong and broken, hopeless and hopeful, all in the same moment. Everett, who writes and performs multiple original songs on the show, says she got her love of music from her mother, Freddie. She also got her sense of humor from her mom, as well as her siblings, including Brock, Brian and Brad, who had given Bridget a piece of feedback: that her acting was improving. "I was being honest," Brad said. "Her acting, especially towards the end, I thought, was authentic. I even teared up on some of that, which is difficult to do when you know your sibling [is] acting. So, you need to separate who you know, and then see her in a character. And have it move you? I think it's a great compliment to her." "Thank you," said Bridget. "You could have just said that in a text." The HBO show features a number of Everett's actual friends and collaborators from New York, including Murray Hill, Mary Catherine Garrison, and, in a star turn, the just Emmy-nominated Jeff Hiller as her best friend, Joel. Though HBO chose not to renew "Somebody Somewhere" for a fourth season, it did win a prestigious Peabody Award, and also picked up an Emmy nomination this season for writing for a comedy series. Everett says the whole thing feels a little surreal: the journey from being somebody somewhere, to somebody who is right where she's supposed to be. "Nothing will ever match this, and it couldn't, but that's okay," she said. "A lot of people don't get the opportunity to have a TV show, to live a life beyond their wildest dreams. And then to get to do it with the people I love? It's why it's taken so long for me to move on and kind of let go. But now I'm just trying to celebrate that I got to do it at all." For more info: Story produced by Aria Shavelson. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
CBS News
a few seconds ago
- CBS News
Restaurateur Keith McNally on why he regrets "almost everything"
Restaurateur Keith McNally hates New Year's Eve – he doesn't like being told to have a good time. "I don't like to be forced to enjoy myself," he said. The "least hospitable man in hospitality," as he calls himself, is not a big smiler, either. "Inside," he explained. It doesn't seem to have hurt. Over 40 years, he's opened some of New York City's most popular restaurants, among them The Odeon, Balthazar, and Pastis – institutions almost as well-known as some of the bold-face names that frequent them. But McNally himself has never been much of a publicity hound, even less so after suffering a stroke in 2016. "Naturally I'm a bit embarrassed to be on TV talking like this—who wouldn't be?" he said. "But it's good for me to do it, because it gets me free of my embarrassment. Actually, I'm embarrassed talking about embarrassment!" But the British-born McNally has largely overcome his embarrassment in a new memoir, "I Regret Almost Everything." "The drawback for me with most memoirs [is], if you're not embarrassed by what you write, you've probably not spoken the truth," he said. "If you don't cringe over every word, it's not the truth." The hardest part to write, he said, was about his suicide attempt, "because my kids. I didn't want to leave them at all." That suicide attempt was two years after his stroke. He was found by his younger son, George. "He was supposed to not find me," McNally said. "Like most teenagers he would sleep until noon. But that day he woke up early, at 8:00 o'clock." "You expected him to be sleeping later, he woke up early, he saw you?" I asked. "Yeah, the bastard just woke up early and saved my life!" he laughed. McNally might joke about it now, but the father of five was suffering with an immobile right arm (he was right-handed), back pain, and aphasia (which causes his slurred speech), and his second marriage was falling apart. But as he writes, some sobering words from a doctor made him reflect: "He said that children who lose a parent to suicide were far more likely to kill themselves than the children of parents who don't. That stopped me in my tracks." Because he had such trouble communicating verbally after his stroke, McNally began using social media. "I was so embarrassed by my speech and the way I looked, I didn't go to my restaurants for one year," he said. "I was ashamed. But eventually I realized, nothing to be ashamed about. So, not only did I admit it wasn't a bad thing, but I went in on Instagram." McNally went viral in 2022 with a post criticizing former late-night host James Corden for allegedly being rude to the waitstaff at Balthazar. But now, McNally confesses in his book he isn't so sure calling out Corden was fair. He wrote: "For someone who's hyperconscious of humiliation since suffering a stroke, it now seems monstrous that I didn't consider the humiliation I was subjecting Corden to. I felt like I'd hit the jackpot of a slot machine and thousands of gold coins were spilling out in front of me. That night I ended up with over 90,000 followers. I was intoxicated with self-righteousness." "Uh-huh, it's true," McNally said. "But afterwards, I felt really bad." Corden later apologized. But the 73-year-old McNally has continued creating a stir online. Take this recent post he wrote about his friend, ABC News' Diane Sawyer, describing a weeklong affair the two had in the 1970s. The story made news … except that it was completely made up. I said, "Some people say, 'Listen, Keith, you know, it's really not cool for you to be sharing this.' And so, did you enjoy that back-and-forth with them?" "Yes. Yeah, I'm afraid, I did, yeah," he laughed. "And I wonder, do you think that the stroke – I don't know, is that, does that …" "Say what you think," said McNally. "Well, is it that you feel a little trapped inside of yourself?" "No," he replied. "I've always been a little like this inside. But since my stroke, and now on the outside." McNally grew up in the East End of London, one of four children born to Jack, a dockworker, and Joyce, a house and office cleaner. The family had little money. "I got angry inside at my parents," he said, "because we had no books in the house, no pictures on the walls. But they couldn't help it. They were working class who grew up with nothing." McNally says he didn't eat in a restaurant until he was 17. "Most of the time, when we were on a holiday, we would go to the restaurant, they would look the prices outside, and then she'd go, 'Not for us.'" And yet, when McNally moved to New York City in 1975 as an aspiring filmmaker, he made ends meet by working in restaurants. "I didn't eat asparagus until I came here," he said. "And the next day, I went to the doctor because the smell of my …" "That was so pungent from eating the asparagus?" I asked. "Yeah, I thought I was sick! So, I went to the doctor. He said, 'What'd you eat last night?'" McNally laughed. "You know what? You gotta put that in the paperback," I said. In 1980, McNally opened his own restaurant, The Odeon, in the neighborhood of Tribeca, in what had been a no-man's land. An immediate sensation, it established certain McNally "musts," such as the importance of having a hamburger on the menu. "I don't like hamburgers much myself," he said. "But it's a sign of snobbery not to have a hamburgers." McNally prides himself on putting his staff above even his diners. Some of his employees have been with him for over 30 years. And ever since returning to work post-stroke, McNally has come to appreciate how they feel about him. "I had to talk to my staff and was really nervous," he said. "They were really kind. In the end, kindness is really essential." I asked, "The stroke lifted the veil on what they thought of you?" "Yeah, yeah," McNally laughed. "They made me feel good." READ AN EXCERPT: "I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir" by Keith McNally If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here. For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@ For more info: Story produced by Kay Lim. Editor: Carol Ross.
