Taylor Lorenz leaves 'Washington Post' after rift with editors

When tech columnist Taylor Lorenz left the Washington Post last week, she did so with a splash: An interview with The Hollywood Reporter about launching her own digital magazine, called User Mag.

“I like to have a really interactive relationship with my audience,” she said. “I like to be very vocal online, obviously. And I just think all of that is really hard to do in the roles that are available at these legacy institutions.”

Lorenz’s professional fate at the paper was in doubt even prior to her announcement. Since August, its editors had grappled with the disclosure that Lorenz had labeled President Biden a “war criminal” in a selfie from a White House event in which Biden was visible in the background. She had circulated the picture to friends in a private social media post.

Lorenz, a frequent and often divisive presence online, never wrote for the paper again.

Three people at the Post with knowledge of events tell NPR that Lorenz lost the trust of the newsroom’s leadership both by posting that selfie with the caption about Biden and then by willfully misleading editors in claiming that she had not done so.

Lorenz initially denied writing the caption or sharing it. After Jon Levine of The New York Post posted a screengrab of it online, Lorenz tweeted, “You people will fall for any dumbass edit someone makes.” She told editors that someone else had added the caption to the photo.

After NPR verified the post was authentic, Lorenz changed her account of what happened, acknowledging to editors she had shared the image.

The Post kicked off a formal review, saying, “Our executive editor and senior editors take alleged violations of our standards seriously.” Lorenz maintained she shared the image as a joke echoing an online