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.
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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 “majors 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.
Meet @washingtonpost columnist @TaylorLorenz. On multiple occasions, she reposted justifications for the targeting of an LA synagogue on the false claim it was "hosting a sale of Palestinian land."
The type of person who believes it's justified to target a synagogue is also the… pic.twitter.com/IsQXH8u41l
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 25, 2024
Related:
Much as @TaylorLorenz would like to pretend this is true, there is no legitimate journalist who is reporting this. “It’s been a major topic of discussion on X all day” because this app is a cesspool of antisemitic conspiracy theories, you idiot. pic.twitter.com/tMc5mwGh19
— Melissa Weiss (@melissaeweiss) June 25, 2024