Last week NewsBusters documented Washington Post technology columnist, crybully, pathological liar, and online harasser Taylor Lorenz threatening Libs of TikTok on behalf of her colleague Elizabeth Dwoskin with false claims that the account was responsible for threats made against a hospital and that it was “evacuated.” Well, there was fallout Thursday when Libs of TikTok called out how the paper lied about the hospital being “evacuated” and Dwoskin blamed the account for her lazy research.
In the false Washington Port report posted on Tuesday titled “Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers,” Dwoskin and Jeremy B. Merrill wrote: “[Libs of TikTok] was recently suspended after a post led to death threats against providers at Boston Children’s Hospital, and bomb threat caused the hospital to be evacuated.”
According to screenshots provided by Libs of TikTok, the account direct messaged Dwoskin sometime after the report was published pointing out the fact “BCH was never evacuated” and asking “Why are you lying to you[r] reader[s]? You should correct this ASAP.”
The same screenshot shows Dwoskin’s response blaming Libs of TikTok for her lazy research and trust of Lorenz, to tell the truth. “We will be making a correction this morning to reflect that it was put on lockdown and access was restricted. It should go up shortly. Curious why you did not flag this to Taylor when she reached out to you on my behalf?” she whined as if it was a plot to make her look bad. “The term was mistakenly in the note she sent you that you posted.”
WaPo published an article claiming a hospital was evacuated. No hospital was evacuated. When I questioned them about this lie they blamed me for not doing their work for them. You can’t make this up. Journalism! pic.twitter.com/qLHGiC1pva
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 22, 2022
The correction for Dwoskin’s lie was buried all the way down at the bottom of the report under 45 paragraphs and eight graphics/images (the automated reader on the post also says it’s an over-15 minute read):
A previous version of this story said Boston Children’s Hospital was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat. The hospital was put on lockdown, and access to it was restricted, but it was not evacuated. This story has been corrected.
Simply reaching out to the hospital in some way or looking up media reports – you know, actual research – could have saved Dwoskin a lot of embarrassment [if a liberal journalist could feel shame]. It’s not the responsibility of Libs of TikTok to do the research for them, especially when Lorenz messaged the account in such a hostile manner; declaring the paper was determined to blame the account for “foster[ing] violence” and “We also say you intend to continue targeting hospitals.”
It’s also curious why Dwoskin’s editor didn’t fact-check her to make sure what she claimed was correct, since evacuating a hospital is such a big deal.
Why is she obsessed with me? @TaylorLorenz, I don’t want to date you pic.twitter.com/YivZhCxDBS
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 12, 2022
