Washington Post Called Out For False Claim in Statement Defending Taylor Lorenz Report
The Washington Post was raked over the coals on social media over a claim made in a statement defending the Taylor Lorenz report that revealed the identity of the person behind the “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account as Chaya Raichik.
After numerous conservatives accused Lorenz of doxxing Raichik, The Post defended Lorenz’s report in a statement from senior managing editor Cameron Barr.
“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. We did not publish or link to any details about her personal life,” Barr said.
The statement, particularly that last line, created its own huge reaction. Many in conservative media called out the statement as a lie, due to the fact that it said something that wasn’t true. The original published version of their story did, in fact, include a link to the account holder’s real estate license.
“LIES. They included a link with personal information which they later removed because they knew what they were doing was abhorrent,” Raichik tweeted from the Libs of TikTok account, emphasizing that the real estate license included “personal information.”
Others similarly blasted the claim from the Washington Post, with some theorizing the link had been swiftly removed from the story after the paper saw the outrage and knew including it was the wrong decision.
The last part of this is false and it would be better to admit it and explain or apologize. https://t.co/1JE9K8Gv9I
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) April 19, 2022
It will be interesting to see how (or if) media reporters cover what appears to be an obvious lie. When the Post originally published the story, it contained a link to “details about her personal life.” You can’t unring that bell simply because they removed the hyperlink. https://t.co/soQ4QMKqQe
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) April 20, 2022
This is an absolute lie from @washingtonpost. Did they even read their own article? https://t.co/eGQM7ak37q
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 19, 2022
“We did not publish or link to any details about her personal life.”
FLAT OUT LIE.
The original Washington Post article by Taylor Lorenz included a link to her real estate license, which displayed her address. pic.twitter.com/ifQv1LdsEV
— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) April 20, 2022
I’m not even a fan of the Libs of TikTok account, but the Washington Post absolutely posted a link to details about her life. This just is not up for debate.
They should’ve just admitted they screwed up and that’s why they removed it, but instead doubled down on an absolute lie.
— The Wokest Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) April 20, 2022
Following the backlash on social media, a Post spokesperson sent a statement to Spectator writer Amber Athey admitting the link to the real estate license was removed from the article, but defended the decision by arguing it was “publicly available information.” As to why they chose to include it, but then later decided it was better not to have it after all, the spokesperson simply said they “ultimately deemed it unnecessary.”
The brief, terse acknowledgement from the Washington Post conceded that the link to personal information was, in fact, in the original story. They did not retract the claim this admission falsified, however, instead deflecting to whether that personal information was publicly available. They did not address that no one would have been looking for that particular real estate license except that Lorenz offered it — and the real estate license number and home address on it — explicitly as part of identifying Raichik.
Mediaite has reached out to The Washington Post for comment, but has not received a response as of this writing.
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