Alexander Abad-Santos of The Atlantic writes about how The Economist recently chided rival Bloomberg BusinessWeek for falsely claiming that its journalists could be disciplined for drinking spritzers while at work.
Abad-Santos writes, “So, The Atlantic Wire had to ask, what are you guys drinking over there? ‘We love The Economist,‘ Tyrangiel told us over the phone. ‘The truth of the matter is that every staffer here has a spritzer two or three times a day, and contrary to what The Economist wrote, there’s no scolding involved.’
“Hmmmm. ‘It’s mostly spritzers,’ Tyrangiel said by phone. ‘It’s one of the questions we ask before we hire someone and if they aren’t spritzer drinkers we just have to think whether they’re a good cultural fit.’
“So, if Bloomberg is indeed a pro-spritzer anti-scolding office, where could that tip to The Economist have come from? ‘I wouldn’t know who the tipster was. I don’t know where it came from. We have very kind relations with The Economist,‘ said Tyrangiel, who thanked the tipster. ‘One of my great enjoyments in life is a good correction.’
“Because we just won’t let spritzer-gate die, we asked if there was any intention to smoke the tipster out by passing along this rotten spritzer information. Tyrangiel tells us it’s quite the opposite. ‘We invite the tipster down for spritzers to see how we roll.'”
Read more here.
