I could not fault anybody for having a policy of "no comment" to the press 100% of the time, no matter what subject, and no matter how storied or respected the organization for whom the reporter is working. Not cool.But what was most problematic about the piece was Kantor’s use of a truncated quote that was taken out of context, which prompted a series of hastily written critical pieces about the Lean In project that revealed a reflexive closed-mindedness about the idea of a corporate leader who also identifies as a feminist.
On its own, that quote—“I always thought I would run a social movement”—sounded unappealingly arrogant and naïve about history. But the comment was only part of an interview that Sandberg gave for the feminist PBS documentary “Makers: Women Who Make America,” and her full statement actually conveyed something quite different: “I always thought I would run a social movement, which meant basically work at a nonprofit,” she said. “I never thought I’d work in the corporate sector.”