New York Times scribe Sheryl Stolberg — who got blitzed Monday by the sale of the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos, a day after she published a lengthy feature on its publisher Katharine Weymouth that failed to anticipate the deal — defended herself against critics yesterday in a slew of testy Twitter exchanges.
Journalist Dan Froomkin tweeted yesterday that Stolberg had been “clueless” about the $250 million sale to the Amazon founder. Stolberg shot back that his post was “idiotic” while insisting that her story was “prescient.”
“My story looks smart,” Stolberg tweeted. “It laid out the challenges and burden of being a Graham in a tough news economy.”
“Well it’s certainly more important to look smart than to be smart,” replied journalist David Ferguson.
Meanwhile, Weymouth — who will remain publisher after the sale of the paper — raised eyebrows yesterday with seemingly contradictory comments about the kerfuffle to the Huffington Post.
Weymouth insisted she didn’t know if or when the transaction was coming when she was interviewed by Stolberg. In the next sentence, however, she argued that Stolberg’s story was a personal profile rather than a business story, “so I never had to lie to her.”
Stolberg tweeted yesterday that she interviewed Weymouth on July 12. “If Bezos deal came up mid-July, as reported, maybe she didn’t know?” she wrote.