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It is not unusual for Meta to aggressively push back on articles. And it's not unusual for publications to stand by the stories Meta pushes back on. But the situation that has unfolded over the past 24 hours between Meta and The Wire, a major Indian nonprofit news website, is extraordinary.

Meta has publicly made the very serious charge that The Wire irresponsibly published two widely circulated articles based on fabricated documents, and The Wire has responded by digging its heels entirely into the sand.

The dispute began on Monday when The Wire published what appeared to be an explosive story: that a top official in India's ruling party effectively had the ability to unilaterally scrub posts from Instagram. Later that day, however, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone poured cold water on it. Specifically, Stone went as far as to say that "the underlying documentation" in the story appeared "to be fabricated." Stone has a reputation among journalists as a spokesperson who spins on behalf of Meta (after all, doing so is his job), but not as a spokesperson who brazenly lies for the company. 

But on Tuesday, The Wire suggested he had done just that. The outlet said that it had obtained an email where Stone appeared to privately acknowledge the documents were authentic. The Wire reported that Stone emailed his team asking "how the hell" the documents leaked and demanding the journalists who wrote The Wire's story be placed on a watch list. Included in the Tuesday story was a screen grab of the supposed email.

That's where the story took an even more bizarre turn.

Guy Rosen, Meta's chief information security officer, issued an on-the-record statement that called the Stone email cited by The Wire "a fake." Rosen stressed that "there is no" internal journalist watchlist at Meta. Others piled on by pointing out red flags with the supposed Stone email. (Shoshana Wodinsky of MarketWatch has a good thread on that here.)

The Wire, however, has not backtracked on its story. Jahnavi Sen, the lead author of both stories and the outlet's deputy editor, told me by email that "of course" The Wire "stands by both of its stories." Sen added that "Meta’s claim that the documents are fabricated is preposterous" and insisted the information was provided "by sources we know and trust within Meta."

The whole matter is quite unfortunate. Meta wield enormous power in India, particularly through WhatsApp, and needs strong news organizations to hold the company accountable. If this is indeed a case where The Wire published reports based on inauthentic documents, it is a massive setback for journalists in the country as it hinders the credibility of the country's news media writ large. 

The episode also shows that Meta has tremendous work to do to earn the trust and confidence of the public. The company's history and track record, which ironically includes allowing bad faith actors to spread misinformation in unprecedented fashion, makes it easy for people to believe the worst of the company — and disbelieve its firm denials. 

———  BELOW THE FOLD  ———

One-On-One With Biden: President Joe Biden sat down with Jake Tapper on Tuesday, CNN's first interview with Biden since he took the office of the presidency. In the interview, which will air as Tapper debuts in prime time Tuesday night, Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "rational actor" who "miscalculated significantly" when he launched an invasion of Ukraine. "I think he thought, Jake, I think he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated," Biden said. The full interview airs at 9pm.

► Tapper also spoke with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who told him that he is not forever ruling out running for president. "I wouldn't do that," Johnson said, adding for now he had made the decision not to run because the "most important job" he has is raising his children. 

The Tucker Edit: When Tucker Carlson aired his interview with Kanye West, he assured viewers that the artist was "not crazy at all." But shocking footage obtained by Vice's Anna Merlan tells a different story. Merlan obtained footage of West making bigoted statements during the interview about Jewish people, among a number of other things. Strangely, such footage from the interview didn't make it to air on Fox News. I asked spokespeople for the network why that was and didn't hear back. But the answer is fairly obvious, isn't it?

Cutting Down the Amazon: TikTok has upended pretty much every Big Tech company in the business. Now it's apparently ready to take on Amazon. Axios' Sara Fischer reported Tuesday that the short-form video sensation "is planning to build its own product fulfillment centers in the U.S., creating an e-commerce supply chain system that could directly challenge Amazon." As Fischer added, "The move signifies TikTok's commitment to e-commerce as its next major revenue stream, following the explosive growth of its ads business."

First in Reliable: Included in the annual edition of Variety's New York issue, which comes out on Wednesday, is its annual "New Power of New York" list. As the magazine explains in its introduction accompanying the list, it takes note "of the shift in fortunes, paradigms and vibes over the past year or so." Some highlights from the list, I'm told, are Chris Licht, Rashida Jones, Marcus Mabry, Denée Benton, Nicholas Braun, Ana de Armas, Michael R. Jackson, Chloe Fineman, and Bowen Yang. 

The Atlantic's Next Cover:  Jake Tapper has penned the cover story for the next edition of The Atlantic. "It's an investigation into the case of C.J. Rice, a young, Black Philadelphia man, serving as many as 60 years in prison for attempted murder, for a crime that Jake's dad, C.J.'s doctor and a long-time pediatrician in South Philadelphia, doesn't think his patient was physically able to have committed," a spokesperson for the magazine explained. The story will post on The Atlantic's website Wednesday morning. 

► For the cover, The Atlantic commissioned artist Fulton Leroy Washington, known as MR WASH, to paint a portrait of Rice. Washington spent 21 years in prison for nonviolent drug convictions before having his sentence commuted by President Barack Obama.

► On a related note: Adnan Syed, whose case was featured in the "Serial" podcast, had all charges against him dropped on Tuesday by Baltimore prosecutors.

Disney's Delays: Disney on Tuesday announced a heavily revised Marvel film schedule. "Blade" has been pushed to September 2024; "Deadpool 3" to November 2024; "Fantastic Four" to February 2025; and "Avengers: Secret Wars" to May 2026. As Variety's Rebecca Rubin reported, the series of delays are the result of a domino effect. When Disney delayed "Blade" while it searches for a new director, it was then forced to delay the other movies, "given the interconnected storylines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe." 

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