Hilton Hears A Who

In the Dr. Seuss classic tome, "Horton Hears a Who!", Horton the elephant hears a tiny speck of dust talking to him. The speck turns out to be a wee planet inhabited by teeny tiny Whos that ask Horton to keep them safe.

When the other animals discover this, Horton is subjected to ridicule, since no one else can see or hear the tiny Whos. Seuss posits, via the story, that "even though you can’t see or hear them at all, a person’s a person, no matter how small." Horton beseeches the Whos to pull together as a society in order to be heard, and eventually, saved.

Which brings us to the Hilton hotel conglomerate, which has been accused of significant corporate espionage by rival Starwood, owner of Westin, W, Sheraton, and other chains. Starwood claims that two Hilton employees stole 100,000 pages of documents when they left Starwood to join Hilton, and used this insider information to start Hilton's luxury brand, labled Denizen.

Apparently Hilton isn't so sure that they're not guilty as hell, since an article in the Wall Street Journal points out:

Since the imbroglio began Hilton has fired, or placed on leave, about 30 members of its luxury-brands group, many of them former Starwood employees, according to people familiar with the situation.

Hmmm. But Hilton also publicly claims that the lawsuit is "without merit." I guess in lawyer-speak that means there hasn't been a guilty plea or verdict, so technically, we're innocent until we're not. Neener neener.

Did Hilton listen to the voice of honesty and decide to do the right thing for the benefit of society? Perhaps, but don't overlook the fact that a federal grand jury is currently pondering whether to charge Hilton and its executives criminally.

Via Columbus Journalism Review