(Western Journal) A little under two years after Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz doxed Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik, the two had a sit-down interview that went about as well as you might expect.
For one, even though the interview was at an outdoor table at a coffee shop, Lorenz was wearing a mask. In February 2024. That should probably tell you just the kind of personality we’re dealing with here.
But, anyhow, Lorenz tried to double down on her rationale for doxing Raichik for running an anonymous social media account when her day job — as a real estate saleswoman — has nothing to do with an account that mocks the outer limits of performative wokeness, particularly in public institutions such as libraries and schools.
It, uh, didn’t go so well for Lorenz.
Nothing they’ve ever seen! Clutcheth them pearls! I bet Drennen says that whenever encountering someone on the Washington Metro wearing a Republican Party button, but I digress. Lorenz had no choice but to dox Raichik, even though she herself had given a tearful interview about the effects of doxing. (More on that in a bit.)
The Post stuck by its reporter’s decision to reveal Raichik’s identity: “Taylor Lorenz is a diligent and accomplished journalist whose reporting methods comport entirely with the Washington Post’s professional standards,” Post senior managing editor Cameron Barr said in a statement at the time, according to the New York Post.
So let’s reiterate why she thought it was worth doxing Raichik, from her April 2022 piece on the social media account: According to Lorenz, Libs of TikTok had “cement[ed] its spot in the right-wing media outrage cycle. Its attacks on the LGBTQ+ community also escalated. By January, Raichik’s page was leaning hard into ‘groomer’ discourse, calling for any teacher who comes out as gay to their students to be ‘fired on the spot.’”
“Libs of TikTok is basically acting as a wire service for the broader right-wing media ecosystem,” said transgender activist Ari Drennen, LGBT program director from the hard-left scolds at Media Matters for America.
“Libs of TikTok is shaping our entire political conversation about the rights of LGBTQ people to participate in society,” Drennen added. “It feels like they’re single-handedly taking us back a decade in terms of the public discourse around LGBTQ rights. It’s been like nothing we’ve ever really seen.”
“Chaya Raichik, in her management of the Libs of TikTok Twitter account and in media interviews, has had significant impact on public discourse and her identity had become public knowledge on social media,” Barr said, adding: “We did not publish or link to any details about her personal life.”
That last part is factually inaccurate, given that the initial version contained a link to Raichik’s job details and work address; while the details were removed later, the damage was already done.
Lorenz’s only punishment for journalistic sloppiness during her relatively spectacular 2022 run of racking up L’s came after a story about social media coverage of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial contained a false assertion that she had reached out to the subjects and received no response when she hadn’t contacted them for comment at all.
After this, she was reportedly shifted from the features department to the technology beat, and her work had to be approved by Barr before it was published. No word on whether those strictures are still in place.
In any event, Lorenz interviewed Raichik for a piece published Saturday. Raichik, seeking to remind Lorenz of her record, wore a shirt with a still shot from the interview with MSNBC where Lorenz was crying about doxers shortly before she doxed Raichik herself.
Taylor Lorenz says that she has “severe PTSD” from mean tweets directed at her.
“It’s horrifying,” she says before breaking down in tears. pic.twitter.com/ryFweRtnSd
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 1, 2022
