Famous WaPo ‘crybully’ reporter Taylor Lorenz called out over false claim about Depp-Heard trial

Controversial Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz found herself at the center of yet another firestorm after two YouTubers whom she claimed to have reached out to for her story on the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial denied that she had contacted them.

After a Virginia jury brought the sordid affair that hung out the dirty laundry of a celebrity marriage gone horribly awry to a merciful close, Lorenz wrote a story about the influence of online content creators who “offered a glimpse into our future media ecosystem, where content creators serve as the personalities breaking news to an increasing numbers of viewers — and, in turn, define the online narrative around major events,” portraying the competitors of the discredited establishment media in a negative light.

Noting that such content creators “bring in major personal profits in the process” allowing them to “amass followers, money and clout” Lorenz went on to cite two YouTubers who intensely followed the Depp-Heard legal circus, Alina “Alyte” Mazeika of Legal Bytes who “earned $5,000 in one week by pivoting the content on her YouTube channel to nonstop trial coverage and analysis,” and ThatUmbrellaGuy, an anonymous user whom she wrote “earned up to $80,000 last month, according to an estimate by social analytics firm Social Blade.”

However, Lorenz’s report stated that “Mazeika and ThatUmbrellaGuy did not respond to requests for comment,” a claim that was quickly rebutted by the two content creators who called her out for lying that they had been reached out to.

“Um. This says I didn’t respond to requests to comment? I know I’ve gotten a lot of emails over the past two months, but I’ve just double checked for your name, @TaylorLorenz, and I see no email from you,” Legal Bytes wrote on Twitter. “Also, I didn’t suddenly pivot. I started covering this before trial began.”

Mazeika then provided an update that WaPo did reach out to her only AFTER the story was published and the fallout began.

“I have now been (for the first time) reached out to for comment… After the piece was already published and I had to call it out,” she wrote. “This is so dumb.”

She also disagreed with Lorenz’s assertion that she “pivoted,” saying that it was a “misrepresentation” of the story about her that WaPo cited.

ThatUmbrellaGuy also contradicted Lorenz’s reporting, saying “The Washington Post LIED and DID NOT contact me before including me in their story on Johnny Depp, despite reporting they did so.”

“I noted this on Twitter today at 8:31p,” he wrote. “At 9:44p they decided to contact me, AFTER I noted this publicly.”

He added that Lorenz also misrepresented his income in what he called “her obvious hit piece” in a scathing rebuttal to the paper’s “blatant attempt at backtracking.”

Under pressure to defend its star internet culture reporter as the backlash consumed her, The Post was forced to add a correction to the story.

It is the second time in less than a month and a half that Lorenz’s antics have sent her employer into damage control mode. In April, she drew harsh criticism for doxing the woman behind the popular “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account that has been instrumental in outing classroom groomers and other assorted perverts by posting videos of their sexual depravity in their own words.

With many viewing Lorenz as a thoroughly unsympathetic if not downright loathsome character, both she and The Washington Post were given no quarter.

Ever since she jumped from The New York Times to The Washington Post, Lorenz has been a raging dumpster fire for the once-venerable newspaper which could already be experiencing a serious case of buyer’s remorse although they are reluctant to admit it despite the damage that she continues to inflict on its already tarnished reputation.

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