NYU journalism professor baselessly claims Glenn Greenwald incites 'harassment' of Taylor Lorenz

On Monday, New York University journalism professor and New York Times contributor Elizabeth Spiers took to Twitter to spread baseless claims about Glenn Greenwald, suggesting he had used his platform to incite "harassment" against fellow journalist Taylor Lorenz.

Her comments came in response to Greenwald's warning that should anything happen to Matt Taibbi, "the pundits and media employees who spend 4 straight days purposely inciting intense hatred toward Matt and his reporting" would have "blood on their hands."

"GG has spent endless time on this website directing his followers to women on this site for purposes of harassment (ask Taylor Lorenz about rape and death threats)," Spiers tweeted, "but he's making an argument here that Matt is in danger because people are calling him a reactionary."

"People don't show up in your DMs threatening to rape you bc another journalist says your work is bad," she added. "They do that when someone like you goes on Tucker Carlson and spreads conspiracies. Don't pretend you're suddenly concerned for other people's safety."

"Every time bigoted media liberals like you attack me," Greenwald replied, "my email inbox, DMs and replies fill up with homophobic and anti-Semitic hatred. The Intercept had to provide me with armed security on multiple occasions. I've posted many examples." 

He then accused Spiers and Lorenz of adding to the problem.

Throughout the entire exchange, neither Spiers nor her followers were able to come up with any concrete examples of Greenwald engaging in the behavior they claimed he had. Many others, however, came to his defense, pointing out that he had received threats as a result of his reporting.

"Ridiculous," Gov. DeSantis' Rapid Response Director Christina Pushaw tweeted, noting that Greenwald and his family "have definitely been threatened because of his reporting in Brazil and here."

"He never condoned anyone threatening Taylor Lorenz," she added.

"Please show us examples where Glenn directed his followers to harass women," Libs of TikTok asked, however, her request yielded zero results.

In March, NYU's Center for Media and Politics released a study claiming that "large-scale quantitative data ... showed sharp increases in harmful speech" towards Lorenz after she was criticized by Greenwald and Tucker Carlson on an episode of his show.

After reading the study, Greenwald penned a scathing response, lambasting the notion that high-profile journalists such as Lorenz should be off-limits for criticism.

"I don't whine about it or try to claim that nobody can criticize me or my work," he continued, "because I understand that those who seek out a large and influential journalistic platform that affects people's lives are fair game for criticisms, and that my critics aren't responsible for the bigoted and hateful bile I receive daily as a result of the hatred they stimulate."

Lorenz, on the other hand, has famously whined and complained about the threats she receives on Twitter. During an interview with MSNBC's Meet the Press, she even went so far as to start crying and claim that the mean tweets had given her PTSD.

Despite her claims about the danger of receiving threats, she has done her fair share of doxxing and harassing others. Perhaps most notably, she released a hit piece on Libs of TikTok where she showed up to the creator's family members' homes to effectively dox the famously anonymous account.

The incident caused Libs of TikTok to have to temporarily go into hiding over fears she might be tracked down.