Definition from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/smear...: "to publicly accuse someone of something unpleasant, unreasonable, or unlikely to be true in order to harm their reputation"
Second definition from https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smearing: "the making of false statements that damage another's reputation "
From the article itself, which quotes meeting notes written ostensibly by "Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky":
> “He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers,”
This statement from the notes is not accusing the former employee in question of anything, and it is not making false statements about him either. It is expressing an opinion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Furthermore, this article and others from Vice, Vox, Huffington Post, and others are proving why Amazon does not want to explain for the "umpteenth time" what they are doing in response to the virus. There is only so much that can be done within the confines of a physical operation like an Amazon warehouse, and it is crucial that online stores keep operating at this time, so that shoppers stay home.
And yet, all these articles make it seem like Amazon has done nothing. In actuality, apart from providing industry leading wages for warehouse workers, Amazon has increased baseline pay, overtime pay, and enacted numerous reasonable changes to alter the operations of their warehouse. Vice buries one of the most interesting bits, which is how Amazon has been trying to get PPE but has had difficulties:
> Zapolsky’s notes imply the company’s attempts to purchase N95 masks from China fell through. “China has deemed N95 masks as ‘strategic,’” Zapolsky wrote. “They’re keeping them for optionality. They also want to use them for ‘diplomacy.’ The masks in China that we thought we had probably got redirected by profiteers.”
Even the "protests" outside Amazon's warehouses in response to this news story are overblown. For instance https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-fires-chris-smalls-walko... notes that although activists claimed there were 50 employees protesting, the actual count was 15, and only 9 of those were Amazon employees. Yet mainstream left-leaning media keeps amplifying this story.
In actuality, it appears Amazon has been continuously attempting to improve working conditions, and were finally able to get masks based on orders they placed weeks ago - well before the recent social media / left-leaning journalists' attacks on Amazon began. See https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/02/amazon-begins-running-temp... for more on that:
> Amazon has already described some precautions it’s been taking, including mandatory paid 14-day quarantines for employees who test positive, as well as increased cleaning and sanitation efforts of facilities and infrastructure. The new measures to be introduced next week include taking temperatures of employees at the entrances to warehouses, with any individuals with a fever of more than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit to be sent home, where they’ll have to have three consecutive days without fever to return to work. Employees will also be provided with surgical masks starting next week, the company says, once it receives shipments of orders of “millions” placed a few weeks ago.
Lastly, everyone seems to ignore that this employee violated a direct work order to not come on site, because he had been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Regardless of what people speculate about Amazon's reasons for firing this person, no one seems to be disputing that this employee violated a requirement to not come to the work site. That is clearly grounds for termination, irrespective of other considerations.
So can we please stop sharing these low quality articles over and over on Hacker News?
Keep asking why. Why was this worker ordered to stay home. Was it because he had a brief, 5 minute contact with a covid-19 patient? Other news outlets say that Smalls was unique in his being sent home.
Or maybe was it because he was pushing for a union and the company wanted to find a way to keep him out. Given the article, the latter seems FAR more likely.