TheQuartering [9/19/2022]
Taylor Lorenz claims to oppose online harassment. During an appearance on MSNBC earlier this year, the Washington Post meme expert broke down in tears while discussing the “severe PTSD” she suffered as a result of the “horrifying” abuse she received from “the worst people on the internet.” After the segment aired in early April, Lorenz lashed out at the liberal network for emboldening her online critics.
“If your segment or story on ‘online harassment’ leads to even worse online harassment for your subjects, you fucked up royally and should learn how to cover these things properly before ever talking about them again,” Lorenz wrote on Twitter, the semi-popular social networking platform. “The simple fact is that very few people in power in newsrooms actually understand how the modern internet and online landscape works, and so they continually give ammo to bad actors.”
Lorenz’s recent actions suggest she has learned to embrace online harassment as a tool to intimidate her perceived enemies. The Post columnist reiterated her anti-MSNBC grievance on Monday, only this time she specifically targeted Morgan Radford, the female journalist of color who produced the “insane garbage segment” about online harassment and allegedly “misgendered a colleague” and never apologized.
“No bigger regret in my career than making the mistake of thinking @MorganRadford knew how to accurately report on abuse/ harassment,” Lorenz wrote on Twitter. “Her complete mishandling of the story has led to immense fallout and months of abuse. I cannot warn women loudly enough to stay away from her/MSNBC.”
By publicly criticizing Radford, who identifies as a “Black American with Cuban and Jamaican roots,” Lorenz was explicitly inviting her 339,000 followers to wage a campaign of racially charged harassment against a vulnerable woman of color. Her insistence on attacking Radford’s competence, a racist trope commonly employed by white supremacists who believe in the intellectual inferiority of black people, was especially shocking.
Lorenz, who is white and attended a Swiss boarding school, went on to suggest that Radford was an agent of the white supremacist patriarchy that controls the mainstream media. “Never did I think a fellow woman journalist would throw a colleague under the bus, especially one that purports to advocate for marginalized communities,” Lorenz wrote. “It’s a reminder that cable news will always, above all else, exploit people for cheap views. They fundamentally do not care.”