Editors at The Washington Post “lost faith” in Taylor Lorenz after she branded President Joe Biden a “war criminal” in a social media post — and was “willfully misleading” when confronted about it by her bosses, according to a report.
Lorenz — the controversial tech columnist who has grabbed headlines for doxing “Libs of TikTok” and weeping on MSNBC only to later accuse the network of deceptive editing — announced last week that she left The Washington Post to start her own Substack newsletter.
But that was after she reportedly lost the trust of top editors in the newsroom after The New York Post’s Jon Levine posted a screenshot of an image that Lorenz uploaded to her Instagram account, according to National Public Radio.
In the photo, Lorenz is seen wearing a mask while Biden speaks to an audience in the background. Directly underneath the photo of Biden appears the caption “War criminal” with a frowning emoji next to the words.
Biden has been branded a “war criminal” primarily by pro-Palestinian supporters who are outraged over policies related to Israel amid its ongoing military action in Gaza, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.
Lorenz, who was attending a “Creators’ Summit” of online influencers at the White House in August, intended for the image to be seen by a select number of “close friends” — an Instagram feature that allows users to target a select group of followers rather than the general public, according to Levine’s report in The Post.
She would later claim that the photo was digitally altered, saying: “You people will fall for any dumb*** edit someone makes.”
NPR, however, corroborated Levine’s report and confirmed that the original post with the “war criminal” caption was authentic.
Lorenz then wrote on X: “I literally never ‘denied it was real.’” She claimed that the post was an “obvious meme.”
Lorenz was “willfully misleading” her editors when asked about the social media post, according to NPR. The Washington Post launched an investigation after Levine revealed the contents of his report.
The paper has not announced the results of its probe.
A Washington Post spokesperson referred The Post to an earlier statement about the matter, saying: “We are grateful for the work Taylor has produced at The Washington Post.”
“She has resigned to pursue a career in independent journalism, and we wish her the best,” the spokesperson said.
Lorenz told NPR: “I have no idea about their review.”
“All I know is that they’ve been incredibly cool to me and very great, and I’m on good terms with them.”
She said her departure was fueled by her desire to work as an independent journalist.
“I want out of legacy media as a whole, for so many reasons,” Lorenz said.
“And that’s not a knock on legacy media, I love and support all of my friends in that system, but it’s not the right environment for me to do the work that I want to do.”
Washington Post journalists told NPR that while they were impressed with how well-sourced and collegial she was in the office, Lorenz could also be unyielding when she came under fire online or was criticized for aspects of her work.
In 2022, Lorenz took to social media to accuse one of her editors of inserting mistakes into her story.
That same year, Lorenz also criticized a Washington Post colleague who opined on X about a New York Post item detailing how shock jock and notorious germaphobe Howard Stern was afraid to leave his apartment due to fears of contracting COVID.
Lorenz, who continues to wear a mask in public because she says she has a pre-existing condition, said that the comments by columnist Helaine Olen were “absurd” and “insensitive.”
