it was terrifying. reporter: last month, a senior uber executive sat at a private dinner to pay a million dollars to hire opposition researchers that dig up dirt on journalists writing negative pieces. silicon valley blogger, sarah lacey, one of the apparent targets of the scheme. i ve covered powerful tech companies for a long time and tech moguls, i never heard a plan that detailed before. reporter: later tweeted the executive s comments were terrible and do not represent the company. can these pr problems bring down the company? they could if they continue to get out of control and more of them and the company doesn t address them. this robin hood type value proposition might turn into a darth vaider if they re not careful enough about getting out of control. reporter: likened the struggles to a political campaign which is why it hired david plouffe who helped mastermind president obama s election in 2008. part of plouffe s job, to get uber in cities where the powerful
detailed like that before. reporter: tweeted that the executive comments were terrible and do not represent the company. can these pr problems bring down the company? they could if they continued to get out of control and there are more of them and the company doesn t address them. so this might turn into a dart vadar if they are not careful enough. reporter: uber hired a master mind who helped with president obama s election in 2008. part of job, to get uber in the city where the powerful taxi companies have been powerful in keeping them out. the ceo writes, acknowledging mistakes and learning from them is the first step. we just want to push a button on our phone and get a ride and that s an aspiration and functionality that millions in cities across the country and
senior uber executive said at a private dinner that uber should pay a million dollars to hire opposition researchers to dig up dirt on journalists writing negative pieces. silicon valley blogger sarah lacy one of the apparent targets of the scheme. i ve covered powerful tech companies for a long time and powerful moguls for a long time. and i ve never heard a plan like that detailed before. reporter: later tweeted the executive s comments were terrible and do not represent the company. can these pr problems bring down the company? they could, if they continue to get out of control, and this f there are more of them and the company doesn t address them. so this robin hood might turn into a darth vader if they re not careful enough about how quickly these things get out of control. reporter: uber has likened it s struggles to a political campaign, which is why they i.r.a..ed plouffe. part of plouffe s job to get unabomer in cities where the powerful taxi industry has been
company. can these pr problems bring down the company? they could if they continue to get out of control and if there are more of them if the company doesn t address them. so that might turn bad if they re not careful enough. reporter: uber has likened its struggles to a political campaign which is why it hired david plouffe, who helped mastermind president obama s election in 2008. part of plouffe s job, to get uber in cities where the powerful taxi industry has been successful in keeping them out. in a recent blog post, uber ceo writes acknowledging mistakes and learning from them are the first steps. trying to save the image of a company born out of a simple idea. we wanted to push a button on our phone and get a ride. that s an aspiration i think people in cities and across the world want. dan simon, cnn, san francisco. so what does uber do?
he lives inside his bubble because he likes to live there. and this is also an ecochamber. this is such a great important point you re making here. he makes the announcements followed by big pr problems. first he said we re going to close gitmo. then he doesn t. now we re swapping five of the taliban. all of that is complex and scary and worrying. but there s always this chaos that surrounds it. he comes out in the rose garden with the parents of this guy. you know he s speaking pashto. the whole thing. it s all these pieces of rolling stone ran the piece saying the man was a deserter years ago. and yet at the same time you feel like the administration, i m told they are stumped by the reaction to all this. why are they stunned? that is scary. it is remarkable nancy.