Vox Media is ending its deal to distribute former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz’s podcast and YouTube show after the reporter made a series of inflammatory comments about the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a source close to the matter confirmed. with the situation.
Semafor writer Max Tani, who first reported the news, revealed late Sunday that the controversial tech columnist had a short-term partnership that will end at the beginning of the year.
Lorenz took to social media on Monday to blast the report as “100% false,” claiming media reporters are “lying” about her, as she vowed to discuss the situation on her podcast this week.
“This is 100% false and I am still working with Vox, and my show is not up for ‘renewal’ because I own 100% of the show and control the distribution, not Vox. Media reporters keep lying about me! Tune into the pod this week where I’ll be discussing :),” she wrote in X.
Vox declined to comment.
A Semafor spokesperson responded, saying, “As Max Now accurately reported, Vox is ending its relationship with Taylor Lorenz in 2025. You can read that story here.”
A source with knowledge of the deal confirmed the report to The Post, adding that Lorenz’s deal will expire in early 2025.
The person did not elaborate on why Vox was not renewing Lorenz’s contract, but there has been a cloud of controversy surrounding the columnist recently.
Just last week, Lorenz sparked outrage when she defended her comments about the cold-blooded killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“And people wonder why we want these drivers to die,” Lorenz wrote on BlueSky, a microblogging social media network, along with an article about how Blue Cross Blue Shield will no longer cover anesthesia for the entire length of some operations.
The tech reporter made the dark statement just hours after Thompson, 50, was shot outside a Midtown hotel, leaving his two sons fatherless.
She later shared another user’s post saying: “Hypothetically, would it be considered an actionable threat if you started emailing other insurance CEOs with a ‘you’re another’? Totally unrelated to current events btw.”
Lorenz, who recently launched her own publication, User Mag, continued to back the criticism of Thompson and other company executives.
“People are very justified in hating insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an immeasurable amount of death and suffering. As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it,” she wrote.
The journalist tried to downplay her comment hours later, insisting she only intended to encourage “peaceful letter-writing campaigns”.
According to Semafor’s report, Vox, which owns outlets like New York Magazine, Vulture, Intelligencer and The Cut, made the decision to cut ties with Lorenzi before those inflammatory comments.
called President Biden a “war criminal.” Retrieved from NY Post
However, it is unclear whether they were affected by another recent firestorm over Lorenz’s August social media post in which she called President Biden a “war criminal.”
Lorenz, who served as a technology columnist for The Washington Post at the time, came under fire after New York Post reporter Jon Levine posted a photo of X that Lorenz had uploaded to her Instagram account while attending an event at the White House with Biden in August. .
The selfie showed him wearing a COVID mask with Biden in the background, which was captioned “war criminal”.
The Washington Post launched an internal review of the social media post.
Lorenz initially claimed the image had been digitally altered, writing on social media: “You people are going to fall for every stupid edit someone makes.”
She also told her editors that the photo was fake. But National Public Radio confirmed the authenticity of the image.
Lorenz eventually left the Washington Post in October. The results of the newspaper’s investigation were not published.
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Image Source : nypost.com