As part of a Friday segment on MSNBC's MTP Daily, correspondent Morgan Radford blamed Fox News, Tucker Carlson, and Glenn Greenwald for online death threats and sexual harassment directed at female journalists, which included Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz tying such attacks to her PTSD.
Host Chuck Todd came out of commercial and set the table, “The latest government statistics show 1 in 3 women under the age of 35 have experienced a type of essentially sexual harassment online. It's often under-reported and many times not taken seriously despite its serious risk to mental health and physical safety.”
Todd then introduced Radford, who launched into a recorded segment with Lorenz and The 19th’s Kate Sosin: “Journalist Taylor Lorenz is a columnist for the Washington Post and was targeted one year ago in a segment on Fox News.”
After playing a brief clip of Carlson declaring that, “She's at the very top of journalism’s repulsive little food chain,” Radford continued, “Host Tucker Carlson mocking her after she called for an end to online harassment. Now she's at the center of a new study by NYU researchers, among the first to actually quantify online hate against female journalists.”
The point of Carlson’s segment wasn’t mocking Lorenz for being encountering the worst parts of the internet, but pointing out that she claims to be against harassment but, because she isn’t very good at her job, she ends up being what she claims oppose.
Of course, MSNBC didn’t mention Lorenz’s inaccurate reporting that led to the segment -- which of course doesn’t justify death threats or sexual harassment -- but it does mean that Fox News and Tucker Carlson aren’t responsible when they were simply criticizing her work.
Still, in an effort to tug at viewers’ heart strings, Lorenz declared:
Yeah, they’ll threaten children, they’ll threaten my parents. I’ve had to remove every single social tie. I have severe PTSD from this, I—I-- contemplated suicide, it got really bad. You feel like any little piece of information that gets out on you will be used by the worst people on the internet to destroy your life and it's so isolating.
Lorenz has provided MSNBC with some less-than stellar commentary this week. On Wednesday, she commented that “the dog whistle nature” of criticism towards TikTok is full of “anti-China sentiment” and “sounded sort of, almost QAnon-like.”
Back in studio, Radford did note that Greenwald provided MSNBC with a comment on the segment’s premise, “as a member of various marginalized groups I don't want or accept some special immunity yield against being criticized and no journalist with any dignity or worth should want that either.”
While Todd focused on women under 35, Lorenz claimed on Wednesday to be 43 although her age is one of the most bizarre controversies in contemporary journalism and then there is her job, which apparently requires her to report on teenage birthday parties.
This segment was sponsored by Colonial Penn.
Here is a transcript for the April 1 show:
MSNBC MTP Daily
4/1/2022
1:51 PM ET
CHUCK TODD: Welcome back. This week the White House proclaimed April as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. One of the fastest growing threats to women is online harassment. The latest government statistics show 1 in 3 women under the age of 35 have experienced a type of essentially sexual harassment online. It's often under-reported and many times not taken seriously despite its serious risk to mental health and physical safety.
The Biden administration is committed to a new global partnership for action on gender-based online harassment and abuse. The goal: deliver an action plan in combatting technology facilitated gender-based violence by the end of this year.
Morgan Radford joins me now. She’s been doing some reporting on the impact on this type of harassment, especially the impact it has on women in journalism, and it's not even a close call, Morgan, as nasty as the attacks can be on—on—on-- some of us in this business, if you’re a woman it is at another level.
MORGAN RADFORD: Yeah, that’s right Chuck and you know, before this was all sort of anecdotal, but now we have hard data. I mean, this is one of the biggest issues facing female journalists right now, and an unprecedented study is giving us a closer look at just how online attacks against female journalists are actually getting started and what it looks like for those who are on the receiving end, but a warning to our viewers, some of the language you here in this report, it may be disturbing.
Female reporters are often at the center of the bullseye, 73% of women journalists saying they experienced online attacks while 30% say it impacted their work.
TAYLOR LORENZ: I don't know if I can say this on TV, “I‘m going to rape you.”
RADFORD: Someone said, wrote the words, “I’m going to rape you”?
LORENZ: Yup.
RADFORD: Journalist Taylor Lorenz is a columnist for the Washington Post and was targeted one year ago in a segment on Fox News.
TUCKER CARLSON: She's at the very top of journalism’s repulsive little food chain.
RADFORD: Host Tucker Carlson mocking her after she called for an end to online harassment. Now she's at the center of a new study by NYU researchers, among the first to actually quantify online hate against female journalists.
RADFORD: This is the moment that Carlson aired that segment.
RESEARCHER: Yes. We see this really dramatic raise.
RADFORD: Using large-scale data to measure online language, they tracked violent and threatening tweets at two female journalists after being targeted by two male media figures. Researchers found that attacks against Lorenz went up as much as 144% after just one Twitter thread. For another journalist, they went up 65%. Lorenz and digital reporter Kate Sosin say these types of attacks have changed their lives and their work.
KATE SOSIN: There's reporting that I know that I would like to do that other journalists would like to do that we are not able to do because it's not safe enough for us to do them.
RADFORD: And they are not alone.
This is after I did a report on the increase in the number of white supremacist running for office, “condescending journalist [c-word] deserves a rope.” Obviously, I’m a person of color. Obviously, there's a reference to a noose. Are you getting messages like these?
LORENZ: Yup. “Hey nice job on that story you soulless effing [bleep]” then also see there’s these, there’s many people that are tweeting, you know, here’s, these are Taylor Lorenz’s loved ones.
RADFORD: They have photos. Wow, these are all photos of your family members. Children
LORENZ: Yeah. Yeah, they’ll threaten children, they’ll threaten my parents. I’ve had to remove every single social tie. I have severe PTSD from this, I—I-- contemplated suicide, it got really bad. You feel like any little piece of information that gets out on you will be used by the worst people on the internet to destroy your life and it's so isolating.
RADFORD: And terrifying.
LORENZ: It's horrifying. I'm so sorry.
RADFORD: No, you're fine. You're fine.
LORENZ: It's overwhelming. It's really hard.RADFORD: Now Chuck, we reached out to Glenn Greenwald and Fox News about the study. Greenwald responded saying in part “as a member of various marginalized groups I don't want or accept some special immunity yield against being criticized and no journalist with any dignity or worth should want that either.” Neither Tucker Carlson nor his employer, Fox News, have responded to us, Chuck.
