Categories: OLD Media Moves

Facebook vs. The New York Times

Dylan Byers of NBC News writes about how Facebook executives are upset with how The New York Times has been reporting about the company.

Byers writes, “Asked to respond to the criticism, Times executive editor Dean Baquet told me Facebook was ‘a big company with unusual power that finds itself in the middle of some of the largest issues of the day — privacy and political meddling.’

“• As for the sponsored ad, Baquet said: ‘There is no connection between our coverage of Facebook and the company’s business dealings with Facebook.’

“• ‘Many of the stories were done by the investigative team. Others were done by business news reporters who cover the company. The stories grew organically from the controversies surrounding Facebook and elections,’ Baquet said. ‘As the person who oversees the newsroom, the only discussions I’ve had with Facebook were about the stories.’

“The Big Picture: The New York Times is the vanguard of a new age of tech journalism in which reporters are taking a more aggressive and adversarial stance toward Silicon Valley and its leaders. Depending on where you stand, the new posture is either long overdue or a threat to the traditional standards of fair and impartial coverage.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.