The pastor ended his letter to Kantor on an angry, sarcastic note. “There is no integrity when it comes to the Times. You should do well with that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight in my face and told me a lie!”

Wright’s letter did not deter Kantor from writing another piece about Wright on April 30, 2007—almost two months after her piece about Wright being disinvited from Obama’s presidential announcement events. It detailed Wright’s influence Obama’s political life and raised questions about the pro-black ideology of the Wright’s church.

It contained a telling quote from Kantor’s original interview with Wright that proves Wright and Obama frankly discussed the negative impact Wright could have on Obama’s candidacy.

“If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Wright told Kantor in March 2007. “I said to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.”

The Times stands by their work. In a statement to Time magazine, New York Times Political Editor Richard W. Stevenson said, “it is worth noting that at no time has Mr. Wright challenged the accuracy of either story written by Ms. Kantor – both of which, given the events of the last several weeks, seem remarkably prescient about the potential political peril in the Obama-Wright relationship.”