Fiorina fallout: Corporate credibility takes the low road

I suspect you feel the same way, but we in the media don’t exactly enjoy being told lies. The Carly Fiorina news of this morning certainly has been in the works for several weeks, yet company spokesmen denied there was a change in the wind up until basically the last minute. No company, especially a Fortune 100 one like Hewlett-Packard Co., makes a turn like this on a dime, believe me.

If you’re a regular reader of this site, you might remember Melanie Hollands’ column last August detailing some of Fiorina’s major leadership problems. So it was no secret what was going on at the company. The lying started in earnest following a Wall Street Journal story in January about H-P’s board of directors possibly reassigning some of Fiorina’s powers to others. On Jan. 24, a mere 16 days ago, Matt Hines of C/net’s News.com quoted HP Director of Corporate Lies — er, Media Relations — Robert Sherbin as to the following:

“Boards discuss a wide range of topics consistent with their fiduciary responsibilities, and any speculation about these discussions is just that — pure speculation … While the board did discuss structural changes at its recent meeting, there are no other senior changes due in the near future.”

Um, excuse me — but today IS the near future.