Back in 2019, Matt Mullenweg announced a new role, the Executive Director of WordPress, without disclosing the role was being filled by someone working for his for-profit company Automattic. When that person was brought up after that, it was rarely mentioned that they worked for Automattic, despite the obvious conflict of interest inherent in the situation. That conflict of interest might explain why the WordPress never got its conflict of interest policy, which that person said was coming.

That lack of disclosure continued when Matt Mullenweg announced that person’s replacement, under the slightly changed title, Executive Director of WordPress.org, in October. Considering how clear it has become recently that Matt Mullenweg has been intentionally obscuring the control of WordPress and intermixing of different entities, you might reasonably expect that journalists would be careful about accuracy on things like this. That continues to not be the case.

Covering a recent Q&A by the new Executive Director, WPShout’s Sabina Ionescu covered her this way:

Before joining WordPress as Executive Director, Mary worked at TikTok Americas, a platform known for its own reputation challenges and difficulties. Prior to TikTok, she emphasized that she had worked directly with Matt Mullenweg at Automattic for three years, highlighting her familiarity with the project overall.

While Matt Mullenweg was upfront about this, it isn’t hard to the find the Executive Directory admitting their works status. Here is Mary Hubbard’s WordPress profile stating that Automattic is her employer and they are sponsoring her involvement:

The WPShout story went on to mention her email address, which, unsurprisingly, is at automattic.com. Not WordPress.org.

(We left a comment on the post noting the correct employment information, it wasn’t approved.)

This isn’t incidental issues, as the story went on to mention establishing clear guardrails for WordPress:

The second point she raised was the need to bring clarity around commercialization and how the community fits into this aspect. Mary also emphasized the importance of establishing clear guardrails to ensure transparency about what the WordPress project represents, the role of the WordPress Foundation, what actions are being taken, and how they are being implemented – a topic that I believe everyone is eager to see addressed.

Having an Executive Director who works for Automattic seems like an obvious step past any guardrails. The lack of transparency is caused by her boss and continued with her very announcement in the role. The previous person in that role was pretty clearly saw there role as working for the interests of Matt Mullenweg. In line with all that, during the Q&A the new Executive Director brought in three other people to answer questions. They all were Automattic employees.

The story also uncritical mentioned comments made by Matt Mullenweg:

Matt also made an effort to reconcile things toward the end of the discussion, emphasizing that his ultimate goal is to do what’s best for users and the community. He noted that “we should not shy away from conflict” but instead engage in debates over ideas and, ultimately, shake hands afterward.

That would be the same Matt Mullenweg who said he was going to take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” against WP Engine after their refusal to pay extortion money.

The story also had an odd take on a woman not involved in a situation caused by a man being the one to apologize for it:

Mary acknowledged that the WordPress community is feeling alienated and even went a step further by apologizing for it. I was quite surprised to hear her say this, considering she only joined WordPress in October and had no involvement in the recent controversies and drama. This demonstrates her willingness to take accountability in her new role, which is a very encouraging sign.

Over at the Repository, the coverage managed to mention her Automattic employment. Though, it uncritical mentioned a focus on transparency from her.