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You know what class of people I really feel sorry for? The ones who, by sheer coincidence and misfortunate and absolutely not because of their own actions, just happen to get caught up in controversy and scandal and sheer drama no matter where they work. These poor souls include Keith Olbermann, Antonio Brown, and the 45th President of the United States.
And then there’s Taylor Lorenz, formerly of the New York Times and now with the Washington Post, who once again finds herself targeted by internet meanies for [checks notes] lying about having attempted to contact people before writing a story about them and then trying to cover her tracks in the hope no one would notice:
The Washington Post has issued two lengthy corrections to an article by its notorious “internet culture” reporter Taylor Lorenz.
The piece, which had already been secretly edited after it was published Thursday, detailed how content creators made out big in the sensational Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation lawsuit that ended last week.
Two YouTubers, “LegalBytes” host Alyte Mazeika and an anonymous user named ThatUmbrellaGuy, were singled out in the article.
Lorenz, citing Business Insider, claimed Mazeika “earned $5,000 in one week by pivoting the content on her YouTube channel to nonstop trial coverage and analysis.”
ThatUmbrellaGuy “earned up to $80,000 last month, according to an estimate by social analytics firm Social Blade,” Lorenz wrote, adding that neither YouTuber responded to requests for comment.
Mazeika and ThatUmbrellaGuy claimed Lorenz never reached out to them prior to publication of her story, Fox News reported.
Lorenz also made a second error, wrongly attributing a statement to Depp’s rep, Adam Waldman.
Although a note at the bottom of the article acknowledged her story was “updated to clarify comments made during Waldman’s testimony,” the claim that Lorenz had reached out to the YouTubers for comment was deleted without any acknowledgment.
After Fox News published its story about the stealth-edit, the Washington Post issued a correction at the bottom of Lorenz’s report.
“A previous version of this story inaccurately attributed to Adam Waldman a quote describing how he contacted some Internet influencers. That quote has been removed,” the Post wrote. “The story has also been amended to note The Post’s attempts to reach Alyte Mazeika and ThatUmbrellaGuy for comment. Previous versions omitted or inaccurately described these attempts.”
The Post later followed with an even lengthier editor’s note posted at the top of Lorenz’s piece, though neither correction addressed who had edited the story after it was published.
[…]
Lorenz has been involved in a number of controversies over her journalism ethics – including stories she’s done on Kellyanne Conway and her daughter; tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen; the would-be chief of the now-defunct “Disinformation Governance Board” Nina Jankowicz; and Matt Drudge.
Meanwhile, other Post writers are very publicly sniping at each other over a controversy involving one of their colleagues, David Weigel, retweeting an arguably sexist joke:
And now the principal is trying to restore order:
So Lorenz is in trouble for alleged serious journalistic malpractice, and Weigel is taking fire for a bad Tweet. If I could bet on which one of them will more likely be fired, I know where I’m putting my money.
I wanted to be a journalist when I was younger, but this kind of thing makes me glad I stayed out of it. On the other hand, maybe the middle-and-high-school drama I went through might have prepared me well.
In other higher education news, New York’s Adelphi University has issued a poster demanding that students and faculty not discriminate against someone because of his sexual offender status.
If they need a new dean for the music school, I know a guy who should be ready to go as of February, 2023.
I know none of this is really funny, but I'm having a hard time stifling my laughter at the sheer idiocy of it all!
I already ponied up the bucks. But that's ok. You can "keep sending me posts" anyway!!