HP Scandal: Patricia Dunn and Common Sense

So Patricia Dunn, the now retired HP Chairman, says that she did not know that it was illegal to pretend to be someone, and use confidential information like social security numbers, so that you can solicit their phone records. The fault, she says, is the lying and cheating HP employees that assured her it was OK to do that.

Now, you see the problem with this I hope. Firstly, where on earth was her own sense of right and wrong. Secondly, whatever happened to "The buck stops here"? Not only does she have no common sense or sense of decency, she has zero leadership skills and blames her employees.

How did this woman ever get to be Chairman of the great Hewlett Packard?

I know Dawn Kawamoto, by the way, the CNET reporter targeted by Dunn - and in the past I have seen executives complain about her reporting. She's good. She's smart, tenacious and direct - and that is what great reporters are supposed to be like. Hiding from them, tracking them down to discover their sources, is not only unethical, it is astoundingly unethical and, dare I say it, "UnAmerican."