Online abuse is a problem for all

Credit: Getty Images/damircudic
A spat between New York Times technology reporter Taylor Lorenz and Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson has sparked a larger conversation about the harassment of female journalists online. It’s a real problem — but one that is needlessly gendered and politicized.
In the case of Lorenz, she is a particular lightning rod as someone who frequently covers politically charged online conflicts. The latest blow-up began when Lorenz tweeted a suggestion to observe International Women’s Day by "supporting women enduring online harassment" and added that such "harassment and smears" had "destroyed [her] life."
Carlson responded by mocking Lorenz and pointing out that she is hugely successful. Many accused him of instigating a new wave of harassment toward her, especially by repeatedly mentioning her name during the broadcast.
Lorenz has certainly received ugly messages; one, of which she posted a screenshot, repeatedly told her to kill herself. Others, such as Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, have written about being barraged with often-misogynistic, sexualized abuse and the chilling effect these attacks may have. Journalists may back off from controversial topics; editors may hesitate to assign controversial stories to reporters seen as magnets for harassment.
I can sympathize with these accounts, having experienced my share of online abuse (especially a few years ago when I wrote about the rise of the racist, anti-Semitic "alternative right"). But the current framing of this issue makes me uneasy for several reasons.
One: Why the nearly exclusive focus on female journalists? There is no evidence that they are targeted more than their male colleagues. Men in general, internet user surveys show, get more online abuse of every kind except sexual harassment. Sullivan writes that much of the harassment is driven by "unhinged rage that women dare to have a voice." Undoubtedly true in some cases, but sometimes it’s just rage at the journalist’s politics, or even trolling for trolling’s sake. It’s exceedingly easy to find male journalists who have received messages threatening them and their families, expressing the hope that they will die of a horrible disease, or calling them rapists and pedophiles.
The preoccupation with the harassment of women is ostensibly feminist, but it also reflects an annoyingly paternalistic view of women as fragile damsels in distress.
Two: Discussions of online harassment of journalists tend to heavily favor progressives targeted by the right. But left-wing harassment campaigns, often masquerading as "call-outs" for alleged bigotry, can be hugely intimidating. A few years ago, I wrote about attempts to smear then-New York magazine science reporter Jesse Singal as an obsessive stalker of transgender women. Singal, no right-winger, has drawn the ire of radical transgender activists by raising questions on such contentious issues as the use of puberty blockers for children considering gender transition. He is currently enduring another such smear campaign, blatantly intended to shut down his newsletter on the Substack publishing platform. Yet not a peep from any of the voices speaking out about the perils of online harassment of journalists.
Three: Online abuse is a problem not only for professional journalists or social media figures but for private citizens who didn’t seek the spotlight — and journalists sometimes help instigate such abuse with irresponsible coverage. Ordinary people have had their lives upended by being accused, sometimes out of context, of bigoted online comments, or caught (again, sometimes out of context) in viral videos portraying them as bigots. To imply that their experiences are less important than journalists’ online travails sounds like the epitome of privilege.
Here’s a modest proposal: Let’s support all victims of online abuse and smears, regardless of gender, politics or status.
Cathy Young is a contributing editor to Reason magazine.