Post

I wrote about Taylor Lorenz, ambulance chasing in the face of trans trauma, and why articles about dead trans kids should probably actually be about those dead trans kids. It's a lot to say but I might as well fucking say it all: jude-doyle.ghost.io/i-dont-care-...

I Don’t Care About Your Brandjude-doyle.ghost.io Nex Benedict, Taylor Lorenz, and why trans trauma is not your goldmine.

I always wonder what's the thought process involved here... if you write a piece and a whole lot of people who are affected by the story tell you that you're wrong and why you're wrong, why would your response be "no YOU'RE wrong and you know nothing about journalism"?

As Jude said, it’s the raw arrogance of it all that was breathtaking and awful.

FWIW, I *did* go to journalism school. My professors would've had my ass for this kind of work. The school paper would've booted me with prejudice. I don't think she knows how j-school works, either.

Because she cares more about herself than the child she gave a minute and 4 seconds to in her hour long 'interview'

What are the chances that Lorenz, who claimed to respect you, will actually acknowledge this article, the completely justified criticisms therein and actually respond to it in a respectful manner?

Well, so much for that. She's just tripling down, of course she is. And Ari Drennen, Alejandra Caraballo and all the rest are still just closing ranks around her, of course they are. @alttext.bsky.social

She is such a disappointment.

Yeah. I followed Lorenz for quite a long time and gave her the benefit of the doubt on the Long Covid stuff and the first time she covered Raichik, but >this< was just the last straw. It's one thing for her to stand by her work, quite another to simply shut down concerns people had.

The doubling and tripling down, and the clapping back at trans critics (including, as Jude notes, trans journalists who cover trans issues, of which she is neither), is so beyond unprofessional; it’s just shitty.

Lol Caraballo...ofc...

The wording of her first post is interesting in hindsight

You're really losing the plot.

idk if she'll even read it, everyone should email a link of it to her since that's how she wants to communicate about it.

I know from experience that she'll ignore it if you email her with criticism. bsky.app/profile/evie...

So, @taylorlorenz.bsky.social said she was happy to talk to anyone personally about her reckless, dangerous piece on Chaya Raichik. So, I sent her an email. Would you believe that she never replied? Anyway, she's blocked me now, of course she did, so here's the email she was too cowardly to answer.

Thuggish behavior when called out her for opining on stuff she way off her beat is kind of a trademark. My run-in w. her centered on problems in her social media claims about vaccines and long covid. She blocked me after I offered her several studies contradicting her extremely confident claims.

"problems in her social media claims about vaccines and long covid." What was her framing?

Vaccines don't help ease or prevent long covid. Basically, she was saying one shouldn't over promote vaccines because of that and some other stuff. I told her there was good science suggesting she was wrong on the long covid stuff, and she tried to pull rank on me by asserting covid reporting chops.

I saw this play out several times, including over her recent book release, and finally unfollowed her over it. She was spreading straight-up disinfo.

That was my conclusion. I wandered into a thread of hers (I don't get out much & was unaware of her prior reputation) and posted a link to a paper that discussed vaccines and long COVID, & was told that I didn't have the chops to discuss the issue. (FTR: I have been a science writer since ~1983.)...

2/ So I linked up two or three more papers and was told to GTFO. (In slightly less blunt terms. Not much though.) So I then told her (in so many words) that bluster was not substitute for data/evidence. That's when she blocked me, which was a relief, as she was wasting my time.

Did she suggest you get a biochemistry degree? :>

covid reporting chops"? Sorry, that's an unqualified ranking for medical advice. Not impressed.

PS Just out... a study of almost 1.2 million people in Hong Kong that demonstrates the protective effect of COVID-19 vaccination against long COVID Persistence in risk and effect of COVID-19 vaccination on long-term health consequences after SARS-CoV-2 infection www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@judedoyle.bsky.social thank you for writing this piece & laying out the facts so clearly. it was hard for me to sort through the different threads before this. incredible writing as always. ❤️

I actually went to journalism school and learn about journalism ethics just to be told by someone who didnt that I should go and dont know what journalism is about like im sorry but no you should take the ethics class if you think its ok to use a childs death to score some So Me points.

Thanks for a great piece. I can’t stop fuming at Lorenz boasting of "a story that's far more impactful and wide reaching than some social media clips that will be out of the algo by tmr,” followed immediately by her posting...a series of social media clips 😡

As a random cis guy, thank you. It's not your job to educate me, and I am grateful you made this lesson available.

More journalists need to read this.

I haven't really tried to think too much about this but it's fucked up to essentially put a child's murderer on stage for everyone to see like that. And like I believe her intentions (and Ari's in defending her) are good, but good intentions are paving stones.

I absolutely believe that Ari, or any other trans journalists working to guide Lorenz's reporting, are doing it for the best of reasons and working super hard. It's not their fault Lorenz doesn't know her ass from her elbow.

I don't blame them for trying to help her, but I do blame them for continuing to defend her. Ari Drennen called your article "full of holes" for Christ's sake.

"I have to remind you that reporting is nominally a profession of service, and that reporting on a marginalized community means undertaking the job of serving that community — not dictating the terms of the “help” you think they need, but actually, actively working with them to build trust ... ." ✊🏾

I'm so sorry. The entitlement my fellow cis people have to taking over the narratives of the marginalized, especially when they're grieving something horrifying, and then acting put upon/victimized when they're told how they obviously fucked up must be extremely exhausting.

'Ambulance chasing' is the perfect way to characterize my discomfort with Lorenz's coverage; thanks for giving me the language to express why it bothered me so much.

You did a great job with this, and I appreciate you writing it.

I feel like a bit of a dumbass for not understanding why what Taylor Lorenz did was so wrong. Thank you for writing this — this helped clear it up for me and understand. And to clarify, I'm trans... unfortunately.

Thank you so much for this. The condescension and “well actually” shit from cis journalists has been disgusting to see. This was an excellent piece.

Thank you.

i know we have had our disagreements in the past but i really appreciate this piece and after sitting with it all day needed to tell you. linked to it in an upcoming thing i wrote which is largely about why media tacks so hard to the right in the u.s.

this was exactly what i needed to read today, cathartic, thank you

I’ve been at odds with some of your work in the past but I just want to say this is so important and I deeply appreciate you writing it ✨

Thank you. I think it makes sense to be skeptical of me or anyone with a platform writing about super sensitive stuff. You can't have respect until you earn respect, and I hope I earn it.

Thank you for writing this.

Jude, whew. This is a barn burner and I felt it in my very core. Thank you for writing it

This is an absolute gut-punch of an article. So well said. Thank you for this.

Thank you. After watching so much of the Trans Journalist Class put their profession above their community, it's really heartening to see a trans journalist say the truth

I've never actually clapped so many times when reading an article. So much here that absolutely needed to be said.

Brutal and thank you for expressing better than I ever could my feelings on TL: "What I really want to say is that she’s either somebody’s kid or she helped someone bury a body, because there’s no way in hell she got this job based on the quality of her work..."