WashPost Caught Stealth Editing Lorenz Lies About Comment Requests

The Washington Post got caught trying to secretly clean up a mess after hatchetman, doxxer, pathological liar, and “internet culture” writer Taylor Lorenz lied on Thursday about reaching out to two YouTube content creatures she targeted over their videos about the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial. Lorenz, ironically, has been posting angry tweets to support Heard earlier in the week when he was found guilty for defamation.

In her piece title “Who won the Depp-Heard trial? Content creators that went all-in,” two of the content creators she targeted were an anonymous pro-Depp YouTuber who goes by ThatUmbrellaGuy and licensed attorney LegalBytes. They committed a crime. Making money by releasing popular videos

Alyte Mazeika, a content creator for YouTube, earned $5,000 just by changing the channel’s content towards nonstop trial coverage. Business Insider reports that Mazeika also gained analysis and analysis. (…)  ThatUmbrellaGuy, an anonymous YouTuber whose entire channel is dedicated to pro-Depp content, earned up to $80,000 last month, according to an estimate by social analytics firm Social Blade.

In her original story, Lorenz falsely claimed she had reached out and both and they “did not respond to requests for comment” (included below).

Shortly after Lorenz’s article went live, LegalBytes called her out on her lies. “Um. It means that I haven’t responded to any requests for 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,” she tweeted.

She also called out Lorenz for mischaracterizing her coverage of the Depp-Heard trial as a hard “pivot.” “Also, I didn’t suddenly pivot. I started covering this before trial began,” she wrote.

Um. This means that I haven’t responded to any requests for comment. While I am aware that I received several emails during the past two-months, I double-checked for your identity. @TaylorLorenzI have not received an email from you.

I also didn’t pivot suddenly. Before trial started, I began covering it. https://t.co/7qHTrOsfHQ pic.twitter.com/yJzzqS8ggS

— Legal Bytes 🍽💙 (@legalbytesmedia) June 3, 2022

A quick look at LegalBytes’s videos and it’s clear she covers high-profile court cases including the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

A point during the blowback on Thursday The PostThe article was stealthily edited to hide the fact that Lorenz never reached out to them, even though she claimed to have. This stealth edit was discovered by Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn.

Upon reaching out to the paper, they told him “The story has also been amended to note The Post’s attempts to reach Alyte Mazeika and ThatUmbrellaGuy for comment. Incorrectly or absent from the previous editions, these were described in error. They eventually published that as part of an Editor’s Note, where they admit Lorenz also misattributed a quote to one of Depp’s lawyers.

But the saga doesn’t end there.

Further details to follow on Thursday The Post pushed out this beefy Editor’s Note:

This story incorrectly stated that ThatUmbrellaGuy and Alyte Mazeika, both Internet influencers, had been reached out for comments before publication. In truth, Mazeika only was reached via Instagram. The Post asked Mazeika for comment via Instagram after the story had been published. ThatUmbrellaGuy was also queried. The Post changed the inaccurate statement in the story. However, they did not mention it, which is a violation to our corrections policy. This story was updated to reflect that Mazeika refused to comment on this story, and ThatUmbrellaGuy couldn’t be reached for comment.

In an earlier version, this story misattributed a quote from Adam Waldman to Johnny Depp’s lawyer. It described how Depp contacted Internet influencers. The quote has now been removed.

The paper did not explain why Lorenz claimed she reached out to YouTubers because she was an editor. It was not explained why the editor allowed Lorenz to say she reached out the YouTubers only after the article had been published. And, of course, the woman was found lying about the comments requests that were sent.

Journalism dies at The Washington Post.