@manton When several employees publicly state “I found out about this from Jason Fried’s public blog post” then it’s unambiguously the CEO who’s at fault. He should have ensured that the decisions were adequately communicated to staff before making it public. You can make excuses for him but, at best, those amount to ‘he broke something by accident’. He still broke something, didn’t apologise, and, as CEO, is ultimately responsible no matter what.
He prioritised getting ahead of potential leaks over ensuring good internal communications. No matter how you slice that, that’s pretty irresponsible management right there.