The Washington Post has taken some pretty painful hits in recent months thanks to their ill-advised decision to hire integrity-challenged New York Times alumna and TikTok expert Taylor Lorenz. It doesn’t take a particularly media-savvy person to see that Lorenz has been an unmitigated disaster over there.
Well, what WaPo could really use right now is a big boost of credibility. Maybe this tweet from Fact Checker Glenn Kessler will do the trick:
Always great to hang out with the brilliant and talented @TaylorLorenz, a terrific addition to the @washingtonpost staff. pic.twitter.com/eAe2EbaqLJ
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) July 18, 2022
Well, if Glenn Kessler thinks Taylor Lorenz is brilliant and talented, we must’ve misjudged her!
There are TWO Taylor Lorenzes?
— Tiger Durden (@RummaTumTums) July 18, 2022
Wait. There's a brilliant and talented Taylor Lorenz, too? And both of them work for WaPo? That's going to get confusing. https://t.co/2aa4rduMiv
— Eric Spencer (@JustEric) July 18, 2022
No kidding!
hey me and my friend really dig your vibe pic.twitter.com/0iqbjl7Qld
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) July 18, 2022
Um, shudder.
Elderly WaPo Writer Visits Popular HateClick Magnet
But enough about @TaylorLorenz https://t.co/xph2291XJp
— NeverTweet (@LOLNeverTweet) July 18, 2022
You look so much younger than her.
— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) July 18, 2022
I don't always agree with Glenn, but it's good to see him showing respect to his elders. https://t.co/JohrDFuK2R
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) July 18, 2022
good idea Glenn to wear masks around coworkers of advanced age. https://t.co/ID0btNsOQ1
— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) July 18, 2022
El oh el.
Seriously, though, Kessler’s tweet and that photo are nothing short of incredibly disturbing. On a few different levels.
First of all, there’s the whole “I’m being forced to do this against my will” vibe that Glenn’s got going on.
blink twice if you need help https://t.co/t5QQmPNLra
— kaitlin, by definition, a woman (@thefactualprep) July 18, 2022
Blink twice if you are being held hostage. https://t.co/qs596m71uC
— Cincy Browncoat – You can't take the sky from me (@cincy_browncoat) July 18, 2022
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) July 18, 2022
Something weird is definitely not kosher here.
She’s got dirt on him. https://t.co/Y96qo92g4z
— Texas Courtney (@AlaskanCourtney) July 18, 2022
That could definitely be it.
How much dirt does she have on you to say this? https://t.co/sDtJlVCHhJ
— Annie is OK (@Aaaannieway) July 18, 2022
Inquiring minds want to know.
Fingers crossed that she didn't find some old tweets of yours.
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) July 18, 2022
We hope so, too, for Glenn’s sake. Because there’s no way he’s not afraid of Taylor Lorenz for at least one reason.
Siri, show me “feeding the alligator with hopes of being eaten last” https://t.co/K17mlpUAKK
— The H2 (@TheH2) July 18, 2022
As we noted above, Kessler’s tweet is disturbing in more than one respect. Yeah, there’s the whole possibly-being-held-prisoner-by-Taylor-Lorenz aspect, but there’s also the weird collision of worlds that’s happening. On the one side, you’ve got Kessler, who is — ostensibly, at least — a fact-checker whose job it is to verify information for news consumers. And on the other side, you’ve got Lorenz, whose de facto job has effectively become just making crap up.
Eesh.
The WashPo "fact checker" praising someone who has repeatedly been caught lying.
Way to discredit the entire organization even further. https://t.co/qPw1hiP0qn
— Bob Weave (@lowkeyrbe) July 18, 2022
Now I trust you less… and I’d have thought that an impossibility. https://t.co/VPZ2AXbuX4
— Tandy (@DanTypo) July 18, 2022
Quite a feat.
Everything wrong with the media in one tweet. https://t.co/M4U0IRPobS
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) July 18, 2022
Put it in the encyclopedia.
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