NYT and Silicon Valley reporter go at each other

John Koblin of the New York Observer writes Wednesday about an interview that Silicon Valley freelance reporter Sarah Lacy did with Tesla founder Elon Musk where he said a New York Times story was retracted.

The Times is now upset that Lacy didn’t call to verify that because they say that there was just a clarification.

Koblin writes, “Times editors were less than thrilled with what Mr. Musk said on the Yahoo video, but they were even less happy with Ms. Lacy — she never called them for reaction, and her interview manner didn’t really help her cause.

“‘I think Sarah Lacy was too busy giggling to do Journalism 101 and call Randy or me for comment to make sure what Elon was saying was accurate,’ said Tim O’Brien, the Sunday Business editor of The Times, in an interview. ‘Because it was not only inaccurate, it was flat-out wrong. We wrote a clarification of the headline. We didn’t retract the story at all; we stood firmly by the story, and I still stand by Randy’s column.’

“‘You can’t help but watch that interview and marvel at the squishy familiarity between Lacy and Musk,’ he continued. ‘And I wonder whether or not some journalistic blinders had popped off.'”

Read more here.