'The Five': Elon Musk banning journalists on Twitter throws liberal media in uproar
'The Five' co-hosts react as the liberal media melts down after new Twitter CEO Elon Musk suspends journalists he accused of doxxing.
Taylor Lorenz, a reporter for the Washington Post, has been suspended from Twitter, she announced late Saturday night.
Lorenz claimed in a Substack post that Twitter CEO Elon Musk was directly involved in the suspension. She also attested that she did not and has not violated Twitter’s terms of service.
"Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account," Lorenz wrote.
Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz is regularly criticized online. ( (Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images) | CNBC Television/YouTube/Screenshot)
In the brief post, Lorenz said she only had three tweets live on her account at the time of the suspension — two of which included links to her other social media accounts, and a third was a tweet sent to Musk.
Lorenz said she and her colleague Drew Harwell, who was also banned by Musk earlier in the week, were "working on a story involving Musk and were hoping to get [a] comment from him," she wrote.
"When I went to log in and see if he had responded to our query, I was suspended," Lorenz said in the Substack post. "I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated."
"I have been on Twitter since 2010 and have run Twitter account for major media brands including Verizon, Wordpress, The Daily Mail, People magazine, The Hill, and dozens more," she added. "Never once in my 13-year career in social media have I received a single terms of service or community guidelines violation, for my personal account or any account that I’ve run."
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In the post, Lorenz described Twitter as an "essential real-time news source" and said the platform has served a "crucial role in the journalism world."
She was critical, however, of Musk’s "arbitrary suspensions of journalists" and said bans on journalists "should worry anyone who values free speech and expression."
A photo illustration showing several Twitter logos around a photo of Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz, who was recently suspended from Twitter, in Hollywood, California on November 30, 2022. ( SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images/Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Cann)
Musk controversially banned several journalists from the Washington Post, CNN, New York Times and other publications earlier this week as he claimed they shared links to his personal real-time location — information the Twitter CEO referred to as "assassination coordinates."
Musk was widely criticized over the bans but initially defended his decision. He said the journalist would remain suspended from the platform for seven days.
Hours later, Musk changed his approach.
The Twitter CEO launched two polls asking Twitter users whether he should reinstate those who were banned.
After the 3.7 million poll participants strongly favored reinstating them, Musk honored the result.
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Taylor Lorenz and John Green attend VidCon 2019 at Anaheim Convention Center on July 13, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images)
The Twitter chief maintains his criticism of the journalists and complains the sharing of real-time information endangers him and his family members.
As recently as Saturday evening, Musk said in a series of tweets that he was a proponent of free speech but drew a clear line at "doxxing," which he called a "criminal offense."
"Free speech is the bedrock of Democracy," he said in another post.
Lorenz and her feud with Musk persisted before the journalists' bans as she was repeatedly critical, in since-deleted tweets, of him and his decision to release internal documents from former Twitter executives, known simply as the "Twitter Files."
As her critics have pointed out, Lorenz does not shy away from controversy.
She recently made headlines for attacking a colleague as "absurd" over a tweet suggesting people shouldn't be afraid to leave their homes over COVID concerns and previously doxxed the identity of popular right-wing Twitter personality Libs of TikTok.
A split image of Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz and "The Free Press" founder Bari Weiss. (MSNBC/Bari Weiss)
"While Taylor Lorenz complains about journalistic ethics, let us remember the time George Conway had to go on Twitter to publicly tell her to stop contacting his 15-year-old daughter for dirt on her mom," podcaster Noam Blum wrote in a tweet Wednesday.
In 2020, she repeatedly publicized a 15-year-old's TikTok posts and allegedly reached out directly to the minor without her parents' permission.
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In 2021, Lorenz falsely accused business tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen of "using the r-slur," which she later admitted was an error.
She was also forced to walk back a claim she was being "relentlessly" harassed by a so-called "Drudge Report editor," later claiming it was a "joke."
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As recently as last week, Lorenz publicly criticized her former New York Times colleague Bari Weiss. Weiss has also assisted Musk in sharing the "Twitter Files."
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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