Washington Post in turmoil part two: Mean girl Taylor Lorenz' false reporting prompts stealth edit, correction, editor's note
By newseditors // 2022-06-07
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The Washington Post newsroom is in turmoil from twin incidents involving reporters. (Part one involving public fight over a politically incorrect joke at this link.) (Article by Kristinn Taylor republished from TheGatewayPundit.com) Lorenz reported this week on social media influencers covering the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial just concluded in Fairfax, Virginia. Lorenz was called out by two subjects for falsely reporting she reached out to them for comment before publication. The Post then engaged in several efforts to clean up Lorenz’s sloppy reporting by first doing a stealth edit (removing the false passage without explanation) and then issuing several corrections. Lorenz took to social media to blame her editor. Earlier this year Lorenz drew heated criticism for doxxing the woman behind the Libs of TikTok account. Lorenz blamed her editor (she locked her account so embedding won’t work right now) in a Twitter thread Saturday afternoon:
“Last Thursday, an incorrect line was added to a story of mine before publishing due to a miscommunication with an editor. I did not write the line and was not aware it was inserted. I asked for it to be removed right after the story went live…The line was a sentence saying that I reached out to 2 YouTubers for comment for my story. The inclusion of the YouTubers was only in passing, citing another outlet’s reporting…After the story went live, I reached out to both YouTubers mentioned in that sentence just to be extra sure there wasn’t some sort of commentary they wanted to add. Neither provided comment for the story and both continued to post about me…The mention of these two individuals was not remotely the focus of my story. It’s become a huge distraction. I spoke to over two dozen creators for my story about the trial, along with other experts who are quoted in the piece…
This should have been a small correction for a miscommunication, but it turned into a multi-day media cycle, intentionally aimed at discrediting the Washington Post and me…We have a responsibility to recognize these bad faith campaigns for what they are and when these sorts of things do and do not warrant acknowledgment…I’m extremely happy at the Washington Post. I chose to work here because it’s a really incredible place filled with amazing, talented journalists and editors. Bad actors recognize the Washington Post’s earnest desire to hear and incorporate feedback, and they exploit that. I know that the stuff I write about and go through is hugely unfamiliar to the vast majority of people in media! I have great hope that all of us can learn from this experience.”
Lorenz then attacked CNN’s Oliver Darcy saying, “No, actually. This type of coverage is so irresponsible & dangerous. It’s misrepresenting my words to amplify a manufactured outrage campaign by right wing media & radicalized influencers, which is driving a vicious harassment/smear campaign against me. CNN is gleefully piling on” One subject, attorney Alyte Mazeika, who goes by LegalBytes online, spoke out Thursday, “Um. This says I didn’t respond to requests to comment? I know I’ve gotten a lot of emails over the past two months, but I’ve just double checked for your name, @TaylorLorenz, and I see no email from you. Also, I didn’t suddenly pivot. I started covering this before trial began.” “UPDATE: I have now been (for the first time) reached out to for comment… After the piece was already published and I had to call it out. This is so dumb.” “Oh, idk about that, Taylor, I believe @ThatUmbrella and I both gave commentary to add—just not the kind you wanted to include. And for the record, your latest editor’s note is still not correct.” Another subject of Lorenz’s false reporting, the anonymous “ThatUmbrellaGuy”, posted about the controversy, calling out Lorenz for contacting him after the article was published even though the article said he decline comment, and also posting comments for a Fox News reporter: The Washington Post LIED and DID NOT contact me before including me in their story on Johnny Depp, despite reporting they did so. I noted this on Twitter today at 8:31p. At 9:44p they decided to contact me, AFTER I noted this publicly…The Washington Post also FLAGRANTLY misrepresented my earnings report and needs to correct it. Social Blade says I made between $4.9k and $79.1k. They ADDED TO the highest estimate, overreporting for dramatic effect.” After several iterations, the Post’s edits to the article went form a stealth edit to a correction to an Editor’s Note, which is still being called out as wrong.
EDITOR’S NOTE The first published version of this story stated incorrectly that Internet influencers Alyte Mazeika and ThatUmbrellaGuy had been contacted for comment before publication. In fact, only Mazeika was asked, via Instagram. After the story was published, The Post continued to seek comment from Mazeika via social media and queried ThatUmbrellaGuy for the first time. During that process, The Post removed the incorrect statement from the story but did not note its removal, a violation of our corrections policy. The story has been updated to note that Mazeika declined to comment for this story and ThatUmbrellaGuy could not be reached for comment. A previous version of this story also inaccurately attributed a quote to Adam Waldman, a lawyer for Johnny Depp. The quote described how he contacted some Internet influencers and has been removed.
Legal Bytes called out the Post, again, “What?! @washingtonpost I will say this AGAIN. I was not reached out to by @TaylorLorenz for comment until after my tweet below. She reached out to me by IG DM AFTER she did on Twitter. Both DMs were sent to me AFTER I called her out here. Please stop lying and take the L.” Lorenz added Sunday afternoon on Twitter, “I don’t have power to edit or change my own stories once they’ve been set live. Reporters don’t even have those privileges in the CMS! I couldn’t make a single change to a story on our website even if I wanted to, that’s an editor’s job.” And without a trace of irony, Lorenz wrote this on Sunday, “Something that bears repeating: when a journalist is the target of a harassment and smear campaign, the campaign isn’t isolated to them. Bad faith actors will search out and destroy the lives of friends, family members, and anyone they deem close to you.” Taylor Lorenz in April harassing family members of Libs of TikTok: Fox News reporter Joseph Wulfson has reported on and kept track of the Post’s edits to Lorenz’s report. Final comment goes to The New York Post’s Jon Levine, “Does the Washington Post understand that this is going to be every single article she writes” Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
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