Patterico's Pontifications

4/19/2022

WaPo Reporter Doxes Libs of TikTok Account Owner

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:26 am



Ed Morrissey’s headline says it all: Unreal: WaPo reporter claimed “severe PTSD” from Internet criticism — and then doxxed an anonymous Twitter user:

Remember this MSNBC segment on online harassment? MSNBC aired it less than two weeks ago. Washington Post tech reporter Taylor Lorenz claimed to have “severe PTSD” over online bullying and doxxing, which she claimed was aimed at her primarily because of her gender. Lorenz’ critics instead pointed to her long track record of targeting people for doxxing and generating cancel campaigns based on her biases and occasionally dishonest reporting:

“You feel like any little piece of information that gets out on you will be used by the worst people on the Internet to destroy your life,” Lorenz said while choking back tears, “and it’s so isolating.”

I felt a little sorry for Lorenz after that interview because she talked of thoughts of suicide, and such thoughts are awful no matter how unreasonable they might be.

But if Internet criticism causes her that much pain, she ought not be publishing stories like this — because it’s a reliable way to generate a storm of such criticism.

I just don’t understand why WaPo greenlighted a story like this. Or maybe I understand all too well.

32 Responses to “WaPo Reporter Doxes Libs of TikTok Account Owner”

  1. Victim nose on, victim nose off

    I wonder if anyone she has doxxed has felt suicidal

    steveg (e81d76)

  2. Prediction: Reporter is fired, but no editor is. She goes to work somewhere a little more woke. Nothing else changes.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  3. I supported Trump, but realize he has failures and flaws, realize that some of the parodies and jokes were funny and some were both true and funny.
    Humor moderates extremes.
    It’s why totalitarians ban criticism and jokes

    Someone should photoshop Lorenz’ face on to Elaine in this video

    https://giphy.com/gifs/hulu-seinfeld-l0MYATH9ZumUHCBXy

    steveg (e81d76)

  4. The harassment of female journalists is ugly and wrong, no matter the provocation. With that being said, however, when one willingly uses their prominent platform to dox private citizens and potentially ruin their lives, they should expect such treatment. People on Twitter (read the comments section of any prominent journalist) tend to be reckless a**holes who didn’t care about anyone but themselves and will say vile things about the individual they currently hate. But of course we know that they would never say such things if face to face with their target. But mostly, what gets me is that anyone who has had suicidal thoughts and can pinpoint precisely why they’re having them, where they’re coming from and what they are the result of would willingly choose to continue on the same path that leads to the darkness. Does Lorenz not have any family, or friends or support people around her to encourage her to leave Twitter because her mental health is worth far, far more than a few social media hits? This is insane. Can she not write her reports without doxxing others or doing to them what she is upset about people doing to her? Can she not tweet it out, or not refrain from putting anything of her personal life out there? I feel like she has unreasonable expectations from other people (those reckless a**holes) as well as unreasonable expectations of herself (that she won’t be targeted in response). She is her own worst enemy, and that includes her misjudgment of human nature (including her own).

    Dana (5395f9)

  5. “The harassment of female journalists is ugly and wrong, no matter the provocation.”

    Is the harassment of journalists ugly and wrong, no matter the provocation?

    It comes with the territory when being in your face provocative and if she has to hide behind her skirt then maybe she should be paid less than the guys that don’t have skirts to hide behind?

    steveg (e81d76)

  6. Yeah, I have to agree here with steveg. To my mind, women who are part of the workforce should be treated as any other member of the workforce, just as men, Hispanics and people with unexpected pronouns are.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  7. But of course we know that they would never say such things if face to face with their target.

    The “punch in the nose effect.”

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  8. While I agree that all journalists should be treated the same (respectfully and without threat to themselves or their family members…), male journalists do not tend to receive threats of vile assaults of rape. And those kinds of threats, on top of family members being threatened, ratchets up the fear exponentially.

    Dana (5395f9)

  9. Ah

    But they do tend to…. buggery is a favorite theme, as is a mouthful of…

    I believe when a person consistently disrespects others, they are more likely to be disrespected themselves.
    Respect is earned, but yes some respect should be a given. Respect can be squandered and lost.
    Life goes that way. We all learn it the hard way at some point.
    Lonrenz throws red meat to her wolves, her wolves then threaten a woman with rape, death and suggestions that she kill herself but she’s above it because she is a woman journalist?

    I’ve been in disrespectful exchanges were I’ve realized I’ve lost respect because of my own actions

    steveg (e81d76)

  10. Libs of Ticktock is also throwing red meat to wolves, let’s not pretend otherwise.

    Davethulhu (da3c71)

  11. Libs of Ticktock is also throwing red meat to wolves, let’s not pretend otherwise.

    Davethulhu (da3c71) — 4/19/2022 @ 3:08 pm

    Reposting videos voluntary uploaded by lunatics with various Cluster B personality disorders is hardly “red meat to wolves.” The only reason the videos get reposted is because the OP made them publicly available to begin with.

    That’s quite a bit different from Lorenz getting the PII for the LibsofTikTok account holder AND that of her relatives, linking to her real estate license that contains her home address, and going to her relatives’ homes unannounced and uninvited to bother them about what the account holder is doing.

    Lorenz doing this had nothing to do with journalism. Lorenz is a left-wing hack, and all it boils down to is that LibsofTikTok was embarrassing her political allies by doing nothing more than reposting their insane rants. So Lorenz published her personal information out of sheer spite, and went to her relatives to let them know that WaPo is capable of exposing and hurting them, too, if they don’t denounce her.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  12. That a Magdalene may demand to be treated like a Madonna is a time-honored and enduring Western male conceit which I fully endorse and personally try to observe as best as I can. That this particular instance is lady vs. lady makes it easier. Any thoughts that involve bikinis and the question “Jell-O or mud?”, I quash ruthlessly.

    nk (1d9030)

  13. Dana, did you see how Megan McArdle responded to this issue?

    “Interestingly, LibsofTikTok appears to be Orthodox, and to work at a realty that caters to the Orthodox, so I’m guessing the fallout of having her name revealed is going to be pretty minimal.”

    Heartbreaking. I thought so much better of her.

    I honestly think that social media leaches away humanity from people.

    Simon Jester (017143)

  14. male journalists do not tend to receive threats of vile assaults of rape.

    The threats made by women against men are indeed different, but can be just as chilling. Only when we come to physical force do we get to inequity, but women also have people who will defend them in those circumstances, for that reason, before they know what when where how and why.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  15. I honestly think that social media leaches away humanity from people.

    I think that the separation of the speaker and their subject is what defeats the normal circuit breakers. It’s not IRL, after all.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  16. “Reposting videos voluntary uploaded by lunatics with various Cluster B personality disorders is hardly “red meat to wolves.””

    She doesn’t just repost videos. She also organizes her legion of mouth-breathers to send hate messages and attempt (occasionally successfully) to get them fired. There’s nothing noble or praiseworthy about her work, she’s a total POS.

    Anyway, I’m sticking with Pophat’s take:
    https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1516423891853455376
    Just a reminder it’s possible for everybody in a story to be awful

    Davethulhu (da3c71)

  17. All three of these interweb children are in the wrong profession.

    Personally know a genuine, female journalist who had her life threaten – for real- not with w/some goofy name calling crap posted on – and she kept on doing her job. Contrast these gadget kiddies with 39 year old Ben Hall, a genuine journalist w/Fox News, reporting from a war zone who was blown up, lost “half a leg on one side and a foot on the other” as well as hand, eye and hearing injuries while his two colleagues, cameraman Pierre Zakrevsky and producer Oleksandra Kurshynova were killed with these weepy, ‘they’re bullying me’ three.

    Then peruse the list of genuine journalists who were under a real threat, from the most powerful man on Earth:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_list_of_Nixon%27s_political_opponents

    Media

    Jack Anderson, columnist, “Washington Merry-Go-Round”
    Jim Bishop, author, columnist, King Features Syndicate
    Thomas Braden, columnist, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
    D.J.R. Bruckner, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
    Marquis Childs, chief Washington correspondent, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    James Deakin, White House correspondent, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    James Doyle, Washington Star
    Richard Dudman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Jules Duscha [sic], Washingtonian
    William Eaton, Chicago Daily News
    Rowland Evans Jr., syndicated columnist, Publishers-Hall Syndicate
    Saul Friedmann, Knight Newspapers, syndicated columnist
    Clayton Fritchey, syndicated columnist Washington correspondent. Harper’s Magazine
    George Frazier, The Boston Globe
    Lou Gordon, The Detroit News columnist and television talk show host
    Katharine Graham, editor and publisher, The Washington Post
    Pete Hamill, New York Post
    Michael Harrington, author and journal member, executive committee of the Socialist Party of America
    Sydney J. Harris, columnist, drama critic and writer of “Strictly Personal”, Publishers-Hall Syndicate
    Robert Healy, The Boston Globe
    William Hines, Jr., journalist. science education, Chicago Sun-Times
    Stanley Karnow, foreign correspondent, The Washington Post
    Ted Knap, syndicated columnist, New York Daily News
    Erwin Knoll, The Progressive
    Morton Kondracke, Chicago Sun-Times
    Joseph Kraft, columnist, Publishers-Hall Syndicate
    James Laird, The Philadelphia Inquirer
    Max Lerner, syndicated columnist, New York Post: author, lecturer, professor (Brandeis University)
    Stanley Levey, E.W. Scripps Company
    Flora Lewis syndicated columnist on economics
    Stuart Loory, Los Angeles Times
    Mary McGrory, syndicated columnist
    Frank Mankiewicz, syndicated columnist, Los Angeles Times
    James Millstone, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Martin Nolan, The Boston Globe
    Ed Guthman, Los Angeles Times
    Thomas O’Neill, The Baltimore Sun
    John Pierson, The Wall Street Journal
    William Prochnau, The Seattle Times
    James Reston, The New York Times
    Carl Rowan, columnist, Publishers-Hall Syndicate
    Warren Unna, The Washington Post, National Educational Television
    Harriet Van Horne, columnist, New York Post
    Milton Viorst, reporter, author, writer
    James Wechsler, New York Post
    Tom Wicker, The New York Times
    Garry Wills, syndicated columnist, author of Nixon Agonistes
    The New York Times
    The Washington Post
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Robert Manning, editor, The Atlantic Monthly
    John Osborne, The New Republic
    Richard Rovere, The New Yorker
    Robert Sherrill, The Nation
    Paul Samuelson, Newsweek
    Julian Goodman, chief executive officer, NBC
    John Macy, Jr, president, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, former Civil Service Commission
    Marvin Kalb, CBS
    Daniel Schorr, CBS
    Lem Tucker, NBC
    Sander Vanocur, NBC

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_list_of_Nixon%27s_political_opponents

    Welcome to the world, kids. Grow a thick skin, suck it up or go back to being a bank teller.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  18. She doesn’t just repost videos. She also organizes her legion of mouth-breathers to send hate messages and attempt (occasionally successfully) to get them fired. There’s nothing noble or praiseworthy about her work, she’s a total POS.

    She’s not “organizing” anything. She’s reposting videos of people who are stupidly power-leveling themselves on their own social media TikTok accounts because they think their politics makes them untouchable and unaccountable.

    Anyway, I’m sticking with Pophat’s take:
    Just a reminder it’s possible for everybody in a story to be awful

    Yeah, that’s why you only complained about one side here, and it just happened to be the one that’s not on your political team. No one’s buying that Jon Stewart-style “both sides are so extreme!” fake centrist pose.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  19. I’m seeing leftists like Matt Binder justify this by saying, “Well, all of this information was available online!” I recall The Journal News pulling a similar stunt with New York’s pistol permit holder list by filing for a public records act, and Gawker followed up by listing all of their names.

    That sort of backfired on them when the Journal News reporters were subsequently doxxed themselves. I don’t think these Millennial “journalists” realize that the 1st Amendment isn’t a shield, likely because college J-schools are training them these days to be left-wing political activists and use the news medium to manufacture consensus, and because their side effectively runs the nation’s cultural and political institutions now. So they think they can go after their opponents with impunity and there won’t be any negative consequences.

    This stuff isn’t exactly new or limited to the age of social media, either. In the early days of the Denver Post, the paper was notorious for using its reporters to dig up dirt on businesses and people with money, then blackmail them in to buying advertising in the paper or paying the Post off to not publish the material.

    Journalists ultimately need to be trained to be more responsible with their reporting, but the current generations have been far too indulged at this point to make that happen. The relatively objective nature of the post-Depression/WW2 news era only came about due to the catalyst of an existential war taking place, forcing a lot of people to grow up fast and be accountable for their actions. Prior to that, newspapers were openly and proudly partisan, and it appears they’ve gone back to their long-time roots.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  20. “She’s not “organizing” anything.”

    She literally boasts about getting people fired.

    “She’s reposting videos of people who are stupidly power-leveling themselves on their own social media TikTok accounts because they think their politics makes them untouchable and unaccountable.”

    What does this even mean? You’re ridiculous.

    “Journalists ultimately need to be trained to be more responsible with their reporting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tiller

    Davethulhu (da3c71)

  21. Journalists ultimately need to be trained to be more responsible with their reporting, but the current generations have been far too indulged at this point to make that happen.

    That’s the responsibility of the gatekeepers: the editor[s] and the publisher[s].

    Exhibit A: Joe Biden. A generation ago reporters literally ran the idiot out of the primaries by exposing him w/his own deeds for what he is: a habitual plagiarist and serial liar. This cycle, he was given a pass by, as Halberstam called them, ‘The Powers That Be.’

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  22. “I’m seeing leftists like Matt Binder justify this by saying, “Well, all of this information was available online!””

    She trademarked her account as a “news reporter service” and has consulted with the Florida government on anti-Trans legislation. If anything, the “doxxing” will elevate her brand, rather than endanger her like the people she exposes.

    Davethulhu (da3c71)

  23. Anti-trans legislation? You mean the one about not badgering toddlers about sex? Horrors!

    This is why the Left fails: it attempts to make ANY consideration of limits to their political reach unacceptable, so they end up defending the most 3extreme things. Sex education in kindergarten, 9th trimester elective abortion, homeless encampments in residential neighborhoods, unfettered immigration and government subsidy of same. And so forth.

    And these position utterly poison more reasonable ones, to the point where all those in the center see are the extremists and the political axe swings.

    I will admit that Trump’s folks tend to do the same thing, which is a problem.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  24. And how come no one is investigating how Taylor got the personal info in order to dox the citizen performing a public service? Did someone at Twitter give it to her?

    mg (8cbc69)

  25. Davethulhu (da3c71) — 4/19/2022 @ 10:00 pm

    I realize you think you’re making some kind of point with these whataboutisms, but you’re really not–sort of like the lunatics in those TikTok videos.

    She trademarked her account as a “news reporter service” and has consulted with the Florida government on anti-Trans legislation. If anything, the “doxxing” will elevate her brand, rather than endanger her like the people she exposes.

    Davethulhu (da3c71) — 4/19/2022 @ 11:28 pm

    Thanks for proving my point.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  26. Kevin #15: I think that is it. It’s the Yelpification of Society.

    Mind you, I appreciate anonymity (heh).

    But as you imply, no one would speak that way in person to another individual.

    Part of it is class based. Where and when I grew up, if you spoke that way to another person, a fight would ensue. So most people were pretty careful in person.

    When I was in grad school, I met a postdoc who was openly contemptuous of me, face to face. I couldn’t understand it. These were fighting words. Was he that tough? He didn’t seem to be.

    Then I saw it: where and when he grew up, he never had to defend himself…because of the whole upper class thing.

    Sigh.

    Sometimes, I wish dueling was still in fashion.

    Simon Jester (017143)

  27. Sometimes, I wish dueling was still in fashion.

    I thought you were a Larry Niven fan, Simon.

    You scream and you leap. — Ringworld

    nk (1d9030)

  28. If the lady trademarked her account, she doxed herself. The owner of, and a “correspondence address” for, the trademark are required to be published information.

    nk (1d9030)

  29. Mg,

    Steven Crowder did some research into how this sociopath got the info. Look up his summary from yesterday.

    This leftist sociopath is the same “reporter” that doxxed Pam Gellar’s kids for the crime of being Pam Gellar’s kids. That was especially nice since islamists were trying to murder their mom. Put a target on the girls backs.

    NJRob (0248b2)

  30. 50 years in government: once a senator, always a senator:

    “I didn’t really appreciate how the rest of the world looks to us as leader of the Free World.” – Squinty McStumblebum, 4/2/22

    What does Delaware? Idaho… Alaska, eh, Joey?

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  31. It’s true, nk, that I can speak the Heroes’ Tongue.

    How much intelligence does it take to sneak up upon a leaf?

    Simon Jester (017143)

  32. Frat boys playing dominance games. I had a brief experience with it myself in law school. And when you give them the sh!tting-on they’re asking for, you become the bad guy for making “the poor guy feel bad”. On the plus side, you find out who your friends are.

    nk (1d9030)


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