‘AL JAZEERA ON THE POTOMAC:’ WaPo Reporter Taylor Lorenz Boosts Defenses of Los Angeles Synagogue Protest.

Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz on Monday pushed a false claim that a Los Angeles synagogue was auctioning off Palestinian land this week—a conspiracy theory that led to violent, anti-Semitic protests outside the Jewish house of worship on Sunday.

Lorenz—who covers social media for the Post and often complains about being targeted by online harassment—reposted multiple comments on X, formerly Twitter, defending the synagogue protesters, promoting the false allegations, and slamming the media, including her former employer, the New York Times, for failing to give the allegations oxygen. The synagogue was in fact hosting an industry expo on real estate investing in Israel, and the false claims that Adas Torah was selling Palestinian land appear to have originated from radical anti-Israel groups, including Code Pink and the Palestinian Youth Movement, according to social media posts.

* * * * * * * *

In a separate incident this week, Lorenz also defended former Bernie Sanders spokeswoman Briahna Joy Gray’s remarks that the media should report on “Israel training dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners,” another unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.

Lorenz said this was a “claim that’s being reported all over X,” and Gray was “just asking if any U.S. papers have investigated the claims.”

“It’s not like she’s asking about some random thing, it’s been a major topic of discussion on X all day.”

9/11, moon landing, and JFK assassination trutherisms, and other conspiracy theories are all “major topics of discussion on X,” but I’m so old, I can remember when Washington Post reporters were usually a bit more discerning than that.

Related: