The folks at Buzzfeed dropped big news Monday evening with a story quoting a senior executive from Uber, the popular San Francisco-based ride-services company, as suggesting the company should consider hiring opposition researchers to dig up dirt about journalists who criticize the company — specifically Sarah Lacy, the outspoken editor-in-chief of Pando Daily, an online publication covering Silicon Valley.

Emil Michael, Uber’s senior vice president of business, made the remarks — which he apparently thought were off the record — Friday at Manhattan’s Waverly Inn, according to the Buzzfeed report, at a dinner attended by such high-rollers as actor Edward Norton and publisher Arianna Huffington.

Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists http://t.co/Wmv1lgvkyR pic.twitter.com/IvAvjrWgwN — BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) November 18, 2014

Also in attendance was an unnamed Buzzfeed editor, who maintains that no one told him that anything said at the dinner was supposed to be off the record.

Michael allegedly floated the idea of spending as much as $1 million to hire four researchers and four journalists to “give the media a taste of its own medicine” by going after reporters’ personal lives and families.

Michael, who came to Uber from Klout and sits on an advisory board for the Department of Defense, was primarily focused on Lacy because of a post she published earlier this year calling out the company for the misogynistic practices of its founder, Travis Kalanick. In the post Lacy called for women to delete the app from their phones due to safety concerns trickling down from the founders’ perceived lack of respect for women.

While Michael never said the company had hired researchers, he proposed the idea of slinging mud at the Uber’s critics as something that would make sense.

In a statement issued through an Uber spokeswoman, Michael quickly backpedaled.

“The remarks attributed to me at a private dinner — borne out of frustration during an informal debate over what I feel is sensationalistic media coverage of the company I am proud to work for — do not reflect my actual views and have no relation to the company’s views or approach,” he said. “They were wrong no matter the circumstance and I regret them.”

Unsurprisingly, the internet was not exactly receptive.

According to Lacy, Michael reached out to her directly to talk, again, off the record. It did not go over well.

just got a call from @emilmichael asking if we could chat off record. i said no. readers and riders deserved to hear it. so he hung up — Sarah Lacy (@sarahcuda) November 18, 2014

Lacy is no stranger to criticism, but in her own response, she detailed just how far out of bounds the latest accusations went. “These new attacks threatened to hit at my only vulnerability,” she wrote. “The only part of my life that I’d do anything to protect: my family and my children.”

She again called for a huge app-deleting campaign against Uber, an idea that appeared to be picking up steam on Twitter.

It sucks that #Uber is a great idea and @Uber is a vile company founded by some of the worst people on earth. — Peter Henderson (@Henderburn) November 18, 2014

I’ve used @Uber exactly once (and ridden in a few more). So long as @emilmichael is in its leadership, once is quite enough. — Rus McLaughlin (@rusmclaughlin) November 18, 2014

Apparently @uber is run by dangerous egomaniacal misogynistic asshats. Who knew? Uninstalling… now. #ubergate — Mr Shoggoth (@MrShuggoth) November 18, 2014

According to Buzzfeed, at least one person at the Waverly Inn dinner anticipated this kind of blow-back if the plan ever became public.

“Nobody would know it was us,” Michael reportedly responded.