Things are getting ugly between Amazon and The New York Times
The NY Times executive editor Dean Baquet just wrote a Medium post in response to a critical piece Amazon released Monday morning, which refuted the Times report for lacking credibility and proper fact-checking.
Baquet's post was released moments after Amazon's PR head Jay Carney wrote on Medium, "In any story, there are matters of opinion and there are issues of fact. And context is critical. Journalism 101 instructs that facts should be checked and sources should be vetted. When there are two sides of a story, a reader deserves to know them both. Why did the Times choose not to follow standard practice here? We don't know. But it's worth noting that they've now twice in less than a year been called out by their own public editor for bias and hype in their coverage of Amazon."
Carney largely disputes the credibility of the sources, saying one of the main sources, Bo Olson, was accused of alleged fraud and falsifying business record. He says Olson admitted to the charges and resigned immediately. Carney also accuses the two NY Times reporters who wrote the story for failing to adequately communicate with Amazon to fact-check some of the allegations prior to publishing the report.