Does "stand by the piece" mean "support the article"?

[NewHopeR]

Context:

[h=2]EDITOR’S NOTE[/h]The comments below are a sample of the outrage with which this news story was greeted. We are sorry that it has offended so many readers, but we stand by the piece. We strongly reject suggestions that it was motivated by bias or racism; our intention was to investigate the science behind a controversy arising from the current Olympic Games. The first paragraph states that Ye has never had a positive drug test and notes that much of the discussion of her win “has been tinged with racial and political undertones”.


More:
Why great Olympic feats raise suspicions : Nature News & Comment

 

[5jj]

As you would have found, NewHopeR, if you had looked through the definitions here.

 

[BobK]

:up: But note that you can't stand by a piece of work that isn't yours. With people it's different; you can 'stand by' someone else. But you can support or defend or agree with or endorse or ...{etc etc.) someone else's work - and that's not standing by it. (At least, not in Br. Eng. ;-))

b

 

[NewHopeR]

As you would have found, NewHopeR, if you had looked through the definitions here.

Thanks.
But I was unfamilar with the usage "piece," (a tabloid usage in my eye) especially when it is referred to a news story in a prestigous scientific journal like Nature.

 

[5jj]

But I was unfamilar with the usage "piece," (a tabloid usage in my eye) especially when it is referred to a news story in a prestigous scientific journal like Nature.

I see nothing about 'tabloid' here, definition 3a. If you would start using the dictionaries as I have suggested several times, you could learn how words are used.