Yahoo! Delivers Apology Prior To Congressional Grilling

In the last few years, Yahoo! has tread through a considerable number of less-than-stellar quarters – some of which have been marked by particularly unsavory moments – and only in recent months has it begun to make pointed attempts at salvaging some grace, honor and fortitude with the divestiture of some ailing and markedly unimpressive products and services, and through numerous public admissions of error by it’s new chief, company co-founder Jerry Yang. (Most things aren’t his fault specifically, of course, but since he’s now the head, he’s the one we’ll often hear those cathartic acknowledgements from.)

The latest note of apology from Yahoo! came just a few days ago, this one for “failing to give US lawmakers additional information about the company’s role in the imprisonment of a Chinese dissident.”

Yeah, remember when news of that discovery first arose several seasons ago? Yahoo! didn’t look too good then. Now it’s making a belated attempt to make itself look a little less dirty for playing so willingly with Chinese authorities in tracking down an individual, one noticeably unhappy with the way Beijing had been (and still is) conducting itself. The individual, identified as Shi Tao, a reporter for a Chinese publication, was “sentenced last April to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets abroad” as a result of Yahoo!’s collusion.

And we know why Yahoo! has now saying sorry for those past actions. Members of the US Congress – particularly those given positions on the Foreign Relations Committee – in late October gave public backing to proposed legislation first authored by Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey which stipulated that US companies would be legally barred from revealing personal data to Chinese authorities, and would be retroactively mandated to disclose what precise information they had agreed with certain human-rights-averse countries to filter. So, really, this admission looks to be a preemptive effort at claiming some good will with the feds.

How the apology will play with Congress, a segment of which (the Committee on Foreign Affairs is its name) is to hold hearings today, November 6th, concerning the controversial matter involving Chinese dissident reporter Shi Tao, is not very clear at the moment. Suffice it to say that Jerry Yang, who will be seated before the committee in Washington with several other company representatives, won’t be getting hugs and kisses and messages of wholehearted forgiveness from members of Congress. The company will likely emerge from the hearings a poster corporation for what entities of the for-profit world should not look to follow.

All in all, a grim moment for Yahoo!, eh? Well, I can’t say I’m much saddened. While Yahoo! isn’t the only American-born enterprise to play by Beijing’s rules in the last few years, it’s certainly open to scrutiny as far as the legal principles of its country of origin are concerned. Too bad, though, that Jerry Yang, a pretty decent individual by Silicon Valley’s standards, has to be the one to clean up the company’s mess.

Note To Readers: Do you think Yahoo! deserves a big spankin'? Do you think the hearings are worthwhile? Let us know in the comments.