As we told you earlier, ostensible “tech reporter” Taylor Lorenz marked International Women’s Day by complaining about being bullied and harassed online. And she knows a lot about online bullying and harassment, as she’s got an impressive history of perpetrating it.
Lorenz ended up limiting replies to her thread, likely because of all of the people spotlighting her glaring hypocrisy and shameless brandishing of the victim card. She could not, however, prevent people from retweeting her.
Which meant she couldn’t stop Glenn Greenwald from calling her out:
Taylor Lorenz is a star reporter with the most influential newspaper in the US, arguably the west. Her work regularly appears on its front page.
Her attempt to claim this level of victimhood is revolting: she should try to find out what real persecution of journalists entails. pic.twitter.com/ZV0lm9CIqh
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021
If you're going to insinuate yourself into polarizing political debates and report (or pretend to "report") on the powerful, you'll be "attacked" online. It can be extra toxic due to race, gender, sexual orientation, etc but it's still just online insults. That's not persecution.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021
With all the suffering and deprivation and real persecution in the world, it is utterly astonishing how often coddled, well-paid, highly privileged, coiffed, insulated, protected US elites posture as the world's most oppressed class. It's quite sickening and offensive. pic.twitter.com/G7IAo4lk5n
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021
If you want to read about what actual persecution looks like, go check out what the US and UK Governments are doing to Julian Assange, to start with. I can't imagine how much he'd love to trade that for mean tweets about him online.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021
We’re not here to defend Julian Assange, but Greenwald’s point still stands. Hacks like Taylor Lorenz and Jim Acosta love to pump up their persecuted-journalist complexes despite having no idea what it’s like to actually be persecuted journalists.
Greenwald himself was targeted by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and charged with cybercrimes after publishing leaked materials that strongly suggested corruption in Bolsonaro’s justice department. He speaks from experience. Taylor Lorenz and Jim Acosta, not so much.
Needless to say, Lorenz takes great offense to Greenwald’s remarks:
“She should try to find out what real persecution of journalists entails” is exactly the type of threatening dog whistle commentary that contributes to harassment campaigns. It’s not ok.
Female journalists, stars or not, should not have to endure harassment for doing their job https://t.co/A0FMQwVM2B
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) March 9, 2021
And female journalists, stars or not, should not be able to avoid responsibility for the culture of online harassment they’ve helped to create and perpetuate.
I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of 7 billion little people don't amount to a hill of beans compared to the troubles of the NYT's social media tattletale wealthy white girl from a $90k Swiss boarding schoolhttps://t.co/thHomVVgjY
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 9, 2021
Taylor Lorenz is a privileged woman who is only against online harassment when it’s directed at her. We have no doubt that she’ll have learned nothing from the experience that she claims has destroyed her life and will return to handing out pitchforks and torches to the Outrage Mob in short order.
what is wrong with you. these two things do not cancel each other out. like this is not real persecution. what is so difficult about not feeding the flames? this is so unnecessary, cruel, and piers morganesque.
— jennifer evans (@nejsnave) March 9, 2021
She's slandered and unfairly maligned many people. She has more victims than persecutors.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021
True story.
We certainly wish no harm on Ms. Lorenz or on any other journalist. But we’re also not going to pretend that she’s not guilty of being one of the loudest, most persistent online bullies out there. If she thought she was immune from the poison she’s been spreading, she thought very, very wrong.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member