Once again, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has successfully spun the story, and a reporter has failed to call him on it. In a recent Q&A with Stoppelman in the LA Times, reporter Robin Abcarian asks the question: What made Yelp decide to allow business owners to comment on its reviews? It’s a legitimate question in light of the fact that Stoppelman had continuously insisted that it would chill the speech of Yelpers. But then, as Abcarian points out, the company did an abrupt about-face after a series of stories I wrote in which multiple business owners said that Yelp’s sales reps offered to move or remove their negative reviews if they advertised.
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