An article published in WIRED by journalist Taylor Lorenz focusing on allegations that a secretive group is funding Democratic activists and influencers has caused substantial turmoil. Lorenz is lashing out online, with support from white leftists, while Black activists are pointing out her allegedly unprofessional actions in getting information for the story.
The piece focused on the Chorus Creator Incubator Program, a media group crafted to pay creators whose policies are affiliated more with the policies of the Democratic Party and the progressive left. Lorenz wrote that the group was funded by what she termed as a “private dark money” group known as the Sixteen Thirty Fund. She went on to suggest that the creators were coerced into withholding their thoughts on certain issues such as the Israeli conflict with Hamas and its harmful impact on the Palestinians in Gaza, in order to be paid.
Lorenz was called out on social media for specifically targeting Black creators such as lawyer and activist Elizabeth Booker Houston and satirist 2Raw2Real, as well as other non-binary and trans creators. Houston has defended herself, stating she was never contacted by Lorenz, and asked WIRED to issue a correction after the piece was published.
Lorenz defended herself in posts on X, formerly Twitter and in multiple TikTok videos, attacking multiple people while defending her information and sources. “Brian is lying. I have 0 financial ties to Sixteen Thirty and neither does the Omidiyar Network’s LLC reporting program, which is NOT a dark money org, is NON partisan,” she wrote on X in response to one of the creators of Chorus, Brian Tyler Cohen, posted a video aiming to debunk the claims in the article and alleging that Lorenz herself had received financial compensation from a group tied to Sixteen Thirty.
While she had some defenders, many others noted how erratic and hostile she has been online in the past, highlighting posts where she defended being an anti-vaxxer and attacked former President Joe Biden after the disclosure of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. The tumult caused by Lorenz’s article highlights the deepening rift between white progressives and Black activists, with the latter group citing how writing like Lorenz’s is as harmful as articles from right-wing writers and publications.
Activist Kiandria Demone, who has worked in fighting anti-Blackness in tech, called Lorenz out in a post on Threads, writing: “Just because someone doesn’t say the N-word doesn’t mean they aren’t being anti-Black. Sometimes it’s not about what’s said… it’s about how Black people are treated compared to everyone else.”
