The Curious Story Of Taylor Lorenz … And Belated Concerns Of The Washington Post

Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

There is a rather curious controversy brewing over one of the Washington Post’s most controversial writers, Taylor Lorenz. The “tech columnist” for the Post has drawn continual criticism over public meltdowns and alleged doxxing. However, the Post seemed to value her notoriety…until she posted a picture of President Joe Biden with “war criminal” on it. Lorenz appeared to suggest that others added those words before various mainstream media outlets contradicted her account. She is now denying that she denied it was her words and the Post is investigating. What is most curious, however, is what it takes for the Post to investigate alleged false claims by its columnists.

Lorenz posted the image during the White House Creator Economy Conference with the President. Many on the left have characterized Biden as a “war criminal” for his stance on Gaza.

Mainstream media outlets reported the posting by a prominent Post columnist in echoing the criticism of Biden.

Lorenz then responded by seemingly denying that she posted the words, chiding others on X that “[y]ou people will fall for any dumbass edit someone makes.”

Many outlets then covered the story that Lorenz was denying the post. However, that produced a torrent of skepticism from even liberal outlets. For example, NPR ran a story that verified that the photo and “war criminal” caption were real:

NPR has obtained a screengrab of Lorenz’s actual post, which contained that caption. … Four people with direct knowledge of the private Instagram story confirmed its authenticity to NPR. They spoke to NPR on condition they not be identified due to the professional sensitivity of the situation for Lorenz.

After the NPR and other stories questioned her account, Lorenz publicly issued her denial of the earlier denial. She tweeted that “I literally never ‘denied it was real.’” She added “Yeah that’s saying they’re falling for (charitable view) something that’s an obvious meme reference by taking it seriously. Please don’t put words in my mouth[.]”

So now, the Post is looking into it.

For some of us, the controversy only adds to the uncertainty over the current standards at the Post. For example, there is apparently no problem in a White House Post reporter supporting government censorship of Donald Trump as an “America issue.”

Likewise, the Post has publicly stood with reporters who have repeatedly published false claims and conspiracy theories. Take Philip Bump, who had a meltdown in an interview when confronted over past false claims. After I wrote a column about the litany of such false claims, the Post surprised many of us by issuing a statement that they stood by all of Bump’s reporting, including false columns on the Lafayette Park protests, Hunter Biden laptop and other stories.  That was long after other media debunked the claims, but the Post stood by the false reporting.

There was no announced or apparent investigation into those claims, or similar alleged false or misleading claims by political or legal columnists. Many of those past controversies involved false claims directed against former president Donald Trump.

The future of Taylor Lorenz is hardly a weighty question for American journalism. However, the lack of consistency on these issues is a matter of concern, particularly as the Post tries to come to grips with falling readership and revenue.