Taylor Lorenz, the Washington Post’s controversial technology and online culture columnist, slammed one of her colleagues at the newspaper for an “absurd, insensitive” tweet about COVID — just months after a Post reporter was fired for tweeting criticism of co-workers.
Lorenz responded on Twitter to a tweet by Helaine Olen, a columnist and contributor to the Washington Post opinion page, who opined on a Page Six story detailing how infamous germaphobe Howard Stern left his “bunker” to dine with friends for the time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“At some point we’re going to need to begin a conversation about the people still too afraid to leave their homes because of Covid,” Olen tweeted.
“I personally know of two such cases. This is not a healthy way to live.”
Lorenz, who has been vocal on Twitter about what she believes is the need for stricter mitigation measures to protect those with co-morbidities, responded: “What an absurd, insensitive thing to post.”
“Thousands are dying per week, millions are disabled & we have zero effective drugs that prevent infection,” Lorenz tweeted in response to Olen.
“Immunocompromised [people] don’t deserve condescending comments [about] being ‘too afraid’ of a virus that can kill or severely disable us.”
The Post has reached out to Lorenz, Olen and the Washington Post seeking comment.
In June, the Washington Post fired political reporter Felicia Sonmez for “insubordination” after she publicly condemned colleagues and editors at the paper for not being sufficiently supportive of female staffers.
Sonmez was angered by the paper’s failure to discipline colleagues who criticized management’s decision to suspend without pay another reporter, Dave Weigel, for retweeting a joke that was deemed sexist by some.
Weigel’s joke was flagged by Sonmez, prompting another Post reporter, Jose Del Real, to criticize her for overreacting.
