{"id":332129,"date":"2017-10-26T06:42:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T05:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/reposting-amazon-press-releases-at-bezos-owned-washington-post\/"},"modified":"2017-10-26T06:42:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T05:42:27","slug":"reposting-amazon-press-releases-at-bezos-owned-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/reposting-amazon-press-releases-at-bezos-owned-washington-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Reposting Amazon Press Releases at Bezos-Owned Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5593221\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5593221\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WaPo-Ask-Seattle.png\" alt=\"Washington Post: What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city? Ask Seattle.\" width=\"350\" height=\"428\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city? Ask <strong>Amazon<\/strong>. (<strong>Washington Post<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/economy\/what-would-happen-if-amazon-brought-50000-workers-to-your-city-ask-seattle\/2017\/10\/19\/1d383c78-b359-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?tid=sm_tw&amp;utm_term=.d3941e063db9\">10\/19\/17<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A matter of huge political import is taking place in scores of cities throughout the country. From Chicago to Charlottesville, San Diego to St. Louis, metropolitan areas big and small are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/2017\/10\/the-sad-spectacle-of-cities-groveling-to-amazon\">making their best pitches<\/a> to <b>Amazon<\/b> to move its second headquarters to their towns. These pitches typically involve some combination of groveling by city officials (New York City <a href=\"https:\/\/ny.curbed.com\/2017\/10\/18\/16497474\/amazon-nyc-empire-state-one-world-orange-lights\">lit the city up orange<\/a>) and massive tax breaks (New Jersey is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northjersey.com\/story\/news\/new-jersey\/2017\/10\/23\/liberal-conservative-groups-unite-oppose-amazon-tax-breaks\/791797001\/\">offering $7 billion<\/a>), all in hopes of reaping a massive economic bonanza from the relocation.<\/p>\n<p>When a major paper of record such as the<b> Washington Post<\/b> reports on this massive story, one would want it to seek out disinterested, outside voices to provide perspective on the rush to woo the Seattle-based company. This is especially true since the <b>Post<\/b> is directly owned by <b>Amazon<\/b> CEO and chief stockholder Jeff Bezos, giving the paper a clear reason to encourage generous bids to their boss.<\/p>\n<p>The entire crux of the online retail giant\u2019s case to city governments\u2014and, more importantly, their citizens\u2014is how much positive contribution its second headquarters will make to the local economy. As such, establishing the magnitude of that impact is a crucial job for news outlets.<\/p>\n<p>So where did the <b>Post<\/b> turn for this hugely consequential number? An <b>Amazon<\/b> press release.<\/p>\n<p>Twice in two articles, DC-based <b>Post<\/b> reporter Jonathan O\u2019Connell referenced massive, sexy dollar amounts on how much <b>Amazon<\/b> might bring to local economies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c<b>Amazon<\/b> has contributed $30 billion to the local economy [of Seattle] and as much as $55 billion more in spinoff benefits.\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/economy\/what-would-happen-if-amazon-brought-50000-workers-to-your-city-ask-seattle\/2017\/10\/19\/1d383c78-b359-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?tid=sm_tw&amp;utm_term=.6098b995de88\">10\/19\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTo accommodate the company\u2019s growth in Seattle, taxpayers funded hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements, although <b>Amazon<\/b> directly contributed $30 billion to the local economy.\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/business\/wp\/2017\/10\/23\/amazon-receives-238-proposals-for-second-headquarters\/?utm_term=.c7306fa0ffe9\">10\/23\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The fact that neither reference had a link or a citation was a red flag. The figures could be derived by adding up numbers in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/browse.html\/?node=17044620011\"><b>Amazon<\/b> press release<\/a> O\u2019Connell had linked to as a source for a separate claim about which cities were submitting bids. When <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OConnellPostbiz\/status\/922820363205136384\">asked via <b>Twitter<\/b><\/a> where he got the figures, O\u2019Connell linked to a different <a href=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/G\/01\/Anything\/test\/images\/usa\/RFP_3._V516043504_.pdf\"><b>Amazon<\/b> press release<\/a> with the same totals, but added something about talking to \u201cecon folks.\u201d (When asked which \u201cecon folks,\u201d O\u2019Connell didn\u2019t respond.)<\/p>\n<p>The press releases gave the following figures:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capital investment (buildings &amp; infrastructure) $3.7 billion<\/li>\n<li>Operational expenditures (utilities &amp; maintenance) $1.4 billion<\/li>\n<li>Compensation to employees $25.7 billion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This equals $30.8 billion.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Additional investments in the local economy as a result of <b>Amazon<\/b>\u2019s direct investments $38 billion<\/li>\n<li>Increase in personal income by non-<b>Amazon<\/b> employees as a result of <b>Amazon<\/b>\u2019s direct investments $17 billion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This equals $55 billion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5593222 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Amazon-Press-Release-1024x520.png\" alt=\"Amazon press release used as unidentified source by Washington Post\" width=\"600\" height=\"305\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It seems clear that O\u2019Connell did some simple back-of-the-napkin math that took his boss\u2019s business at its word. (The <b>Amazon<\/b> press release provided no source, methodology or meaningful third-party confirmation.) Copy-and-pasting a corporation\u2019s claims for its own economic impact\u2014when it has every incentive to hype these numbers\u2014is sloppy enough, but doing so for a corporation whose CEO is also your CEO is a clear conflict of interest.<\/p>\n<p>Other outlets who cited these figures, such as <b>AP<\/b> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/10\/18\/amazon-has-brought-benefits-and-disruption-to-seattle.html?view=story&amp;%24DEVICE%24=native-android-tablet\">10\/18\/17<\/a>) and<b> Business Insider<\/b> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/seattle-bids-for-amazon-hq2-bad-idea-2017-9\">9\/20\/17<\/a>), have noted that they were simply assertions by <b>Amazon<\/b>. While an independent source would be ideal, at least they provided attribution and a notice to readers to take the claims with a grain of salt. The<b> Post<\/b>, by contrast, presented <b>Amazon<\/b>\u2019s press-release figures as fact, with no clue that these totals were simply Large Sexy Numbers thrown out by<b> Amazon<\/b>\u2019s marketing department without any third-party analysis.<\/p>\n<p>When Bezos bought the <b>Washington Post <\/b>in 2013 for $250 million, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/warren-adler\/jeff-bezos-washington-post_b_3769622.html\">many speculated<\/a> on his motives. We can never really know, but having a major national paper uncritically write up <b>Amazon<\/b> press releases as the company is engaged in a massive, nationwide drive to squeeze as much out of a host city as possible makes the paper seem less like a billionaire\u2019s toy and more like a shrewd PR investment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/reposting-amazon-press-releases-at-bezos-owned-washington-post\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city? Ask Amazon. (Washington Post, 10\/19\/17) A matter of huge political import is taking place in scores of cities throughout the country. From Chicago to Charlottesville, San Diego to St. Louis, metropolitan areas big and small are making their best pitches to Amazon to move [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-332129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}