The Scoop: Amazon comes out swinging after accusations of Prime Day harm

July 26, 2019 Palo Alto / CA / USA - Amazon logo on the facade of one of their office buildings located in Silicon Valley, San Francisco bay area

Prime Day is usually a time for Amazon to tout consumer deals and new sales records. But instead, the online retail giant spent Tuesday – the first day of its two-day sale event – dealing with blowback from a new Senate report indicating the sales event has been “a major cause of injuries” for the company’s warehouse workers across the United States.

The report, released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont), draws on information from a year-long Senate committee investigation and Amazon internal data from 2019 and 2020, according to an Associated Press analysis. Roughly 100 current and former Amazon employees were interviewed as part of the investigation.

Sanders released a statement to the AP on Tuesday describing what he called the “incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon” outlined in the report as a “perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of.”

Why it matters: Amazon had a decision to make. The company could have given a “no comment” and waited for the news cycle to pass. But given the timing of the report – surely a calculated move by Sanders and his team – Amazon responded. But it wasn’t just a blanket comment full of jargon and defensive language. It was a full-throated refutation of most of the allegations, complete with details of a federal investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found “no intentional, willful, or systemic errors” in its reporting process, per the AP.

In the statement, Amazon took ownership of the findings it couldn’t refute, such as the fact its warehouses experienced higher injury rates than its peers in past years. But it also chose to go on the offensive, stating the report failed to acknowledge progress Amazon has made since 2019.

On the surface, the headline isn’t great. But anyone who digs a little deeper into the story will see that Amazon shared its side of the story. Ultimately, though, this year’s Prime Day numbers will tell us if Amazon made the right call.

More news of note:

• In the wake of Trump’s selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) as his VP candidate, the Republican National Convention turned much of its rhetoric on Tuesday to the nation’s current second-in-command, Vice President Kamala Harris. The criticism of Harris centered around her handling of the U.S./Mexico border, leaning into a “Make America Safe Again” theme that dominated night two of the convention. Despite recent FBI data showing that violent crimes and property crimes are actually going down, the majority of Americans – about 77%, according to a 2023 Gallup poll – believe the numbers are actually getting worse, Vox reported. Going after Harris sets up an eventual toe-to-toe showdown between Harris and Vance. However, Newsweek’s Alex J. Rouhandeh emphasized that Harris took an “unusual amount of criticism” over the course of the night. One has to assume the approach reflects an effort by the Republican Party to set the communications table in case President Joe Biden does drop out of the race.
• While the Donald Trump campaign is pushing unity, Tenacious D performer Kyle Gass shared a slightly different message with fans in Australia earlier this week. While onstage Sunday in Sydney, Gass’ bandmate, actor Jack Black, asked him to make a birthday wish. Gass responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time,” a reference to the apparent assassination attempt against the former president just one day earlier. A video of the comments circulated on social media. Gass apologized on Instagram. However, a “blindsided” Black denounced the “hate speech” and promptly canceled the band’s remaining tour dates. He also placed all future creative plans on hold, the Associated Press reported. The news of the canceled tour is sure to upset fans of the comedic rock band, but it was important for Black to distance himself from Gass and his comments. Over the years, Black has crafted an image of himself as a family-friendly actor, appearing in films such as “School of Rock” and the “Kung Fu Panda” movie franchise. Allowing himself to be associated with Gass’ comments, even briefly, could only have a negative impact on that image he’s worked so hard to create.
• NBC News leadership is facing questions after a puzzling staffing decision to bench MSNBC’s popular “Morning Joe” program on Monday following the attempted presidential assassination. Host Joe Scarborough said MSNBC leadership had originally told him that all of the network’s opinion-centric morning programming would be preempted Monday by NBC News coverage, according to CNN. That didn’t happen, with the exception of “Morning Joe.” “Next time we are told there is going to be a news feed replacing us, we will be in our chairs,” CNN quoted Scarborough as telling viewers Tuesday. “And the news feed will be us, or they can get somebody else to host the show.” It’s not entirely clear if the decision to only preempt “Morning Joe” was an intentional decision or a leadership oversight, but either way it’s an embarrassing look for MSNBC and its parent company, NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. To those on the outside, the discord draws negative attention to a network that’s trying to attract viewers in the heart of election season. First order of business: Keep your house in order.

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. You can follow him on LinkedIn.