Craiglist CEO Jim Buckmaster let one fly yesterday at CNN reporter Amber Lyon for a report on child sex trafficking she did that focused on the role played by the online-classified giant.

It included using a May interview with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark that Buckmaster characterized as an ambush, and he accused Lyon of “mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject.”

He ended by noting that if “[CNN anchor] Anderson Cooper would like to come out to SF and sit with us for an interview worthy of CNN’s viewers, we’ll consider it.”

But Lyon’s bio on the CNN site told a different story:

“Lyon also investigated the sex trafficking of minors on Craigslist. In a CNN exclusive, Lyon brought her findings to the ‘Craig’ in Craigslist, founder Craig Newmark. Her interview left Newmark speechless.”

Actually, Newmark wasn’t exactly speechless, as you can see from the video below–he just declined to answer and was silent, which is quite typical of him.

Nonetheless, San Francisco-based Craigslist has been under serious fire of late from state attorneys general nationwide who are seeking to get Craigslist to voluntarily take down its “adult services” section, which is lucrative, but which they allege is a thinly veiled venue for prostitution.

Today, the Boston Globe posted a tough editorial supporting a voluntary takedown, noting:

“While Craigslist should be lauded for having in place stronger safeguards than many other websites–and the classifieds sections of some newspapers and magazines–the site is, at the end of the day, profiting off of prostitution.”

Ouch.

Currently, the company says it now screens every adult ad before it goes up, which Lyon alleged was not being done effectively.

More to come, obviously, but here’s an open invite for Buckmaster to do a video with BoomTown, although I am nowhere near as glam as Cooper.

Until then, here is one of the CNN videos by Lyon:

And here is the Buckmaster blog:

For Amber Lyon, CNN

I see you’ve now gotten around to requesting an interview with me or a company spokesperson, 90 days after you ambushed our namesake and founder, Craig Newmark, following his May 20th talk on veteran’s affairs and other issues unrelated to craigslist, at a conference in Washington.

You knew Craig was not in management or a company spokesperson, but setting CNN’s ethical code aside, you sidestepped company channels in favor of ambushing our semi-retired founder, complete with a misleading “set up” for your surprise questions. Now that CNN has aired your highly misleading piece dozens of times, mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject, and you’ve updated your “bio” to showcase this rare jewel of investigative journalism, you’re ready to try actually interviewing the company itself on this subject.

There is a class of “journalists” known for gratuitously trashing respected organizations and individuals, ignoring readily available facts in favor of rank sensationalism and self-promotion. They work for tabloid media. Your stunt has veteran news pros we know recoiling in journalistic horror, some of them chalking it up to a decline in CNN’s standards, which is unfortunate.

Seeing how you’ve pinned your career hopes on butchering this story, I’ll have to pass. If Anderson Cooper would like to come out to SF and sit with us for an interview worthy of CNN’s viewers, we’ll consider it.

Jim Buckmaster
CEO, craigslist

Ms. Whitman, who served as eBay’s CEO from 1998 until 2008 and is now running for governor of California, added that eBay originally had hoped to purchase all of Craigslist; however, she learned it would be impossible to gain a controlling interest without purchasing stock from Craigslist owners Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster.

The comments came on the first day of a trial between eBay and Craigslist, which are fighting about the size of the e-commerce giant’s minority stake in Craigslist, the online classified Web site.

During testimony and cross-examination, Ms. Whitman faced questions related to confidential information eBay received as an investor in Craigslist and how eBay conducted itself while establishing its international classified businesses.

EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., bought a minority stake in Craigslist in 2004 for $32 million, paying half for the shares of Phillip Knowlton, a Craigslist co-owner with Messrs. Newmark and Buckmaster, and half to Craigslist for additional shareholder rights, which included a seat on Craigslist’s board.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Auction giant eBay is headed to court again Monday, and for once, it has nothing to do with the litigious Skype co-founders.

Instead, it’s a battle in Delaware with craigslist, the San Francisco online classified powerhouse that eBay holds a minority ownership position in.

That stake is actually precisely what’s at stake. Currently, the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay (EBAY) has a less than 25 percent one, although it had acquired about 28 percent in a deal in 2004.

The company waged a lawsuit last year against the privately held craigslist for diluting its ownership position by issuing more stock and thereby causing eBay to lose its board seat.

That happened, alleges eBay, through a “coercive plan” by craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster.

“We have acted in good faith as a minority shareholder,” said eBay spokesman Alan Marks. “We are simply asking the court to restore our original interest in the company.”

I sent a late email to craiglist’s rep and will post the reply if I get one.

Whitman–who is running for the Republican nomination for California governor–takes the stand on opening day Monday to talk about the original deal with craiglist.

She will be followed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Of course, craiglist has its own suit in San Francisco, alleging that eBay stole confidential information to create a competing classified service called Kijiji–a dopey name that BoomTown hereby rules someone should be arrested for thinking up–and other misdeeds.

But, so as to be consistent in its awkward legal messes, there is a Skype link: Current Skype President Josh Silverman had been the craigslist board member for eBay and played a key role in developing Kijiji.

Under Whitman’s leadership, ebay also bought Skype, in 2005, and sold a big stake recently.

It was a very controversial sale, which in turn, led to a series of ugly lawsuits from the Skype co-founders, which were just settled last month.

It will be interesting to see what Whitman, who has recently declared that the disastrous Skype acquisition was a good one, says about the craigslist debacle.

Perhaps she’ll say that eBay should have limited its investing during her watch to antiques and other fine collectibles?

Asking if Craigslist is safe is a bit like asking if the Internet is safe. The company’s chief executive Jim Buckmaster said that the incidence of violent crime on Craigslist is “very low, given that 50 million Americans are using the site every month to meet people face to face.”

Buckmaster said that the Markoff case is a tragic reminder that people need to take extra precautions when meeting up with others they’ve met online, and he posted several tips on the site’s blog.

Read the rest of this post on WSJ.com, its original Web site

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announces at a news conference that he has filed suit in U.S. District Court against Craigslist, accusing the site of knowingly promoting and facilitating prostitution.

Said Sheriff Thomas Dart at a news conference: “They’ve actually catered their site so it facilitates (prostitution), where you can actually and more specifically and quickly get to what you want.” He continued: “How is that different than somebody who’s aggressively and actively working with a pimp to try to get the word out about the women working for him?”

Craigslist, in a blog post by chief executive Jim Buckmaster, said that it doesn’t tolerate illegal activity on the site and has taken steps to stop it.

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Last night, dressed in my kindergarten soccer-coach best (sneaks, sweats and athletic socks–glam!), I ventured over to the Tenderloin district of San Francisco to attend VentureBeat‘s party in honor of the launch of its new digital media blog.

Held at the Ambassador club on Geary Street, it was as if 1999 had never ended, and the huge crowd was partying like it was, well, 1999.

Shoulder to shoulder–or, in my puny case, shoulder to stomach–entrepreneurs, PR folks and a healthy smattering of press jammed into the venue, chattering about valuations, venture deals and other vacuous topics of Web 2.0.

Attendees included Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, Craigslist’s Jim Buckmaster, blogger Dan Gillmor and Microsoft-man-in-Silicon-Valley Dan’l Lewin (who gave us bupkis info about the deal, as you can see in the video).

Also in the video, in order, Meebo Co-Founder Seth Sternberg (fresh from a big funding); VentureBeat’s new editor of its digital media blog, Eric Eldon; Lewin; Gillmor; Valleywag’s Owen Thomas; and, finally, VentureBeat Editor and Founder Matt Marshall.