Last night Yahoo issued a belated response to The New York Times on the totally unnecessary “no telecommuting, ever” controversy by releasing a statement that effectively read “Mind your own business; this doesn’t apply to you.”

The brand spokesperson’s words:

“This isn’t a broad industry view on working from home. This is about what is right for Yahoo right now.”

That’s it. No further elaboration, because “We don’t discuss internal matters”. A little translation via inside sources: Marissa Mayer “is in crisis mode” trying to fix the malfunctioning culture of a company that until recently sponsored “work from home” policies loose enough to allow employees to launch startups while still technically working for Yahoo full time.

Yahoo clearly doesn’t want to take part in the larger debate about telecommuting, internal cohesion and working mothers. One thing is clear, though: anyone who doubted that the company’s culture is in serious trouble can now rest assured that the rumors are true.

Also: Here’s an interesting post on the subject from KMSPR CEO Kathleen Schmidt. She argues that, while the “blanket memo” was not a great idea, this “controversy” is really all about the fact that Mayer happens to be a woman–and many in the corporate world would applaud a similar decision coming from a male executive.

What do we think?