Yahoo's press release, announcing the management putsch at Yahoo, is one of the most nauseating examples of corporate doublespeak I've read in a long while. "Yang and Decker to Focus on Realizing Yahoo!'s Strategic Vision by Accelerating Execution, Further Strengthening Leadership and Fostering a Culture of Winning." This attempt to spin, in the most desperate of situations, isn't clever; it's pathetic, and emblematic of a company still in deep denial about its defeat by Google. Further strengthening leadership? Well, maybe, if the Sunnyvale internet company had a great chief exec hire to announce. But it didn't. I suspect the directors didn't feel they could announce yet another executive search, when two of the three positions under the chief exec remain still worryingly vacant. So what about the internal candidates? As we keep hearing, Sue Decker has yet to prove herself to the board. And Jerry Yang, pleasant though he is, can't be anything but a stopgap. Sure, there are heartening precedents for the triumphant return of a chief exec. Steve Jobs came back to Apple, a charismatic entrepreneur, seasoned by reverses, to turn around the company. But Jerry Yang is no Steve Jobs.

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