Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon called out Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post for inaccurately claiming that the Bee had invested in Libs of TikTok.
Libs of TikTok involves a popular Twitter account that reposts videos and other content to expose the radical left, while the Babylon Bee is a popular satire website.
“As I reported, The Babylon Bee, which Musk has had close ties to, invested in Libs of TikTok, allowing Chaya Raichik to grow the media company full time. She’s since launched LibsofTikTok.com, which is synched to her Substack,” Lorenz tweeted on Monday.
But Dillon accused Lorenz of pushing “fake news.”
“Taylor, you probably should have reached out to me before reporting fake news. The Babylon Bee has never invested in anything (with the exception of the development of a third joke, currently scheduled for release in the summer of 2024),” he tweeted on Tuesday. “My personal investments are not Babylon Bee investments,” he added in another post.
Dillon had already made the distinction back in April that he had “personally” made a deal with the woman behind Libs of TikTok.
Taylor Lorenz describes herself as a “Multimedia tech journalist” — her biography on the Washington Post website describes her as a columnist. The media figure has said that she has faced online harassment and threats against her family members, and has even considered suicide. “You feel like any little piece of information that gets out on you will be used by the worst people on the Internet to destroy your life,” she noted.
Journalists Face Online Harassment
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Lorenz had a piece published in April that focused on Libs of TikTok and named the person behind the account.
Dillon noted at the time that the woman behind Libs of TikTok “won’t be canceled from her job because this *is* her job now. I’ve worked out a deal with her that will turn her heroic, high-risk work into a career.”
Lorenz highlighted Dillon’s comments and tweeted, “I had heard that Babylon Bee had recently provided financial backing for @libsoftiktok but didn’t have enough confirmation on the details to nail it down for my story. Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylon Bee has now confirmed it.”
But Dillon pushed back by noting that the deal did not involve the Bee: “The Babylon Bee didn’t do a deal with her. The Bee is a satire publication. You know, like the Washington Post. I did a deal with her personally. Also, I want to thank you for amplifying the voices you try to suppress. Your promotion of @libsoftiktok today has been priceless.”
Last week, Lorenz issued a tweet in which she referred to “Libs of TikTok investor Seth Dillon.”