Controversial Washington Post technology columnist Taylor Lorenz said Tuesday that she has left the left-leaning paper — weeks after the publication launched an internal review following her social media post that called President Biden a “war criminal.” .
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lorenz, who had not published anything for the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet since Aug. 7, said she was leaving to launch her newsletter on the Substack platform.
Her surprise departure comes after she previously told Fox News Digital she was on vacation overseas and hinted she would return to work at the paper the week of September 30.
The outspoken writer came under fire after New York Post reporter Jon Levine posted a photo of X that Lorenz had uploaded to her Instagram account while attending a White House event with Biden in August.
The selfie showed him wearing a COVID mask with Biden in the background, which was captioned “war criminal”.
Lorenz initially claimed that the image had been digitally altered, writing, “You people will fall for any stupid edit anyone makes.”
She also told her editors that the photo was fake. But National Public Radio confirmed the authenticity of the image.
The Washington Post, which hired Lorenz in 2022, launched an investigation but has not yet released the results.
On Tuesday, a newspaper spokesman confirmed Lorenz’s resignation “to pursue a career in freelance journalism and we wish her the best.”
Lorenz told The Hollywood Reporter that she “just wanted out of legacy media.”
“I like to be very vocal online, of course. And I just think that all of that is really hard to do in the roles that are available in these legacy institutions,” she said.
Its newsletter, titled “User Magazine”, will cover technology from the user’s side.
Lorenz has been at the center of controversy during a tumultuous career that has also included stints at the New York Times and the Daily Beast.
In 2022, Lorenz was widely criticized for revealing the identity of social media personality “Libs of TikTok”.
Last week, she appeared on MSNBC and broke down in tears as she recalled how she faced “harassment” from online critics.
During her tenure as a technology reporter for the Times, she was sued by a businesswoman who claimed Lorenz defamed her by claiming she leaked nude images of one of her clients.
Lorenz also caused outrage after accusing tech mogul Marc Andreessen of using a derogatory term during a private chat on the Clubhouse app — which was eventually proven to be false.
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Image Source : nypost.com