Name: TAYLOR LORENZ Talks Journalism, Internet Labor, Viral Culture
Uploaded: 2025-09-10T22:00:03.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'TAYLOR LORENZ Talks Journalism, Internet Labor, Viral Culture' from The Adam Friedland Show on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-09-10. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'TAYLOR LORENZ Talks Journalism, Internet Labor, Viral Culture' from The Adam Friedland Show on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-09-10. Transcript available.

TAYLOR LORENZ Talks Journalism, Internet Labor, Viral Culture

Do influencers or celebs know how much the internet like sucks for everyone
else?
Yeah, I mean I think it sucks for them too.
No it doesn't.
What are you talking about?
They get like, well they get money but I mean I don't-
What do you mean well they get money?
They get money.
The people that don't-
They get more money than the Austin Butler problem.
Yeah.
Would you be online if you were making $0?
Absolutely not.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't know.
It's scary.
It's like you can see people getting killed and then f*cking and then the N-word.
I-
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's too scary.
It's like, you know, I'm just not gonna get that.
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We got three new shirts plus the classic Adam Friedland logo shirt and one hat
and I think
you guys are gonna look fucking sex.
You guys are gonna look sex in them.
You think so?
Yeah.
You've been wearing it?
No.
So once again, it's the TV Glow shirt.
What are the other names?
Put it on the screen.
We got the logo shirt.
The logo shirt.
We got the doodle shirt.
The doodle shirt.
I don't really like it.
Actually, that's based on a shirt that we found Jay Leno made for the Tonight
Show.
Not a big deal.
Pretty cool.
And plus...
The TV Glow shirt.
The TV Glow shirt.
That's kind of based on like the CRT monitor, kind of a Videodrome, kind of Cronenberg
style.
Yeah.
And then we have this hat, guys.
I have pictures of hot girls wearing them.
I'll be posting them all week.
And of course, the classic Adam Friedland Show logo shirt.
Go to theadamfriedland.show and shop there for any of these shirts.
The Adam Friedland Show.
Theadamfriedland.show for merch.
My guest this week is journalist and podcaster Taylor Lorenz.
Taylor has been in the news recently for a bombshell report she published in Wired
magazine,
highlighting dark money funneled from the Democratic party to political
influencers across platforms.
A damning piece of reporting that we failed to mention in the episode because
it was recorded
like how long ago?
A couple months ago.
Yeah, a couple months ago actually now.
So we missed the big, you probably clicked for that.
So why don't, should I call her?
Yeah, I'm going to hit her up.
She can catch you up.
So it's like, okay.
Calling Taylor.
She'll catch us up.
Hey.
Hey, so you're, uh, howdy.
Oh, wait, uh, are we, am I, I'm not like recorded right now.
Are you, are you, is, is this off the, is this on the record?
I don't know how to talk to you people.
You're on the record.
Well, no, you're on the record.
Actually, you're on the record.
Okay.
I'm on the record.
Two could play it back in.
Anyway, um, so we're about to drop your episode, but you know, we did like,
like, uh, two years
ago or something.
So I just wanted to catch up for our audience.
Like, if you could just like tell us a little bit about your Wired piece, just
so we can kind
of like just mention that and, you know, had like as if you were on the show
and I said,
so Taylor, tell me about the Wired piece.
So if you want to, yeah, does that make sense?
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Anyway, no, just kidding.
Go ahead.
I published a story with Wired a couple of weeks ago, now at this point, um,
documenting a program that was being run, uh, in secret basically, where a
bunch of Democrat
influencers, um, were receiving money.
Okay.
Uh, and, uh, it's like, uh, like, uh, it's gained a lot of, it's controversial
or something?
They're getting...
Well, this influencer network has allegedly about 90 influencers in it.
And, um, it won't surprise you to know that they don't like being reported on
very critically.
So I revealed that they were secretly taking thousands of dollars a month as
part of the
schemes of bolstered Democrat messaging.
And, you know, they sent the past few weeks crashing out and slandering me.
Slandering you.
Oh, man.
I'm sorry about that.
Slandering me.
Anyway, yeah, that's terrible.
So that's, that's, that's horrible.
Um, yeah.
Anyway, uh, just for the record, uh, did, just for our audience, I think this
is like,
uh, I, I just, to, to maintain the trust that our audience has in us, but like,
did you ever see my name anywhere in any of those lists or whatever reports or?
Yeah.
Did your name come up in the reporting?
Yeah.
It's a good question.
I mean, yeah.
What do you mean a good question?
Did you see my name anywhere in it?
Just.
Yes.
Uh, no, no, your name did not.
All right.
Okay.
You were not, you were not on the list.
You did not get that.
Okay.
You did not.
You seem to be getting that Democrat money.
All right.
Yeah.
Okay.
Cool.
Sweet.
Uh, yeah.
Uh, okay.
Nice.
Uh, yeah.
Hope you'll be enjoying your, uh, your Tuesday.
Okay.
Or Monday or whatever.
I mean, it's coming out on Tuesday.
I mean, okay.
Yeah.
Well, you won't see it there because they, they won't work with me.
Cause I am, uh, anyway.
Okay.
Uh, have a nice day.
All right.
Bye.
Okay.
Yeah.
Congrats about wired or whatever, whatever that's called.
Bye.
So, yeah.
So there's that.
I'm innocent and, uh, yeah.
Enjoy the interview.
It's really good.
With her.
Journalist.
Lightning rod.
The lightning rod.
Our next guest is an independent journalist.
She's also previously worked at outlets like the New York Times, the Washington
Post.
She cut her teeth covering internet culture.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, Taylor Lorenz.
Thank you.
What, what, is it this or this?
Pleasure.
I don't know.
You, I, I feel so, I took a PCR for you though.
I know.
Thank you.
I know.
I have no immune system, unfortunately.
Is it tough?
Is it tough?
Like just like operating that way?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It sucks.
And people are mean to you.
They're like, you're a loser.
Yeah, they, they hate it.
They're like, fuck you.
Yeah, yeah.
Can we curse?
It's tough.
Yeah.
Everyone here is in hazmat suits right now.
No, it's annoying.
But I would say like, I mean, I'm in a bunch of documentaries and stuff and
like, they usually
still take precautions on set for stuff.
In this show, I, as I was telling you before, like I've made a living on the
internet but I haven't
interacted as much with the internet as most people.
I like kind of mainly just watch movies and stuff and sports.
And in, in these interviews, I've been kind of discovering this ecosystem and
it's been incredibly
stressful.
But from, from what I understand, this has been your focus for like what, the
last 10 years of your life?
Yeah.
15 at this point.
Yeah.
And, and it, and in your estimation, like has that, has driven you, it must
have driven you insane.
I think it probably drove me insane a long time ago and now I'm just, you know,
like the frog in water.
How do you, how do you cope with like the, the insanity of like your, your area
of focus
is the internet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It must take like a, a psychological toll.
And influencers, not even just the internet.
It's like online influence.
Well, they're awesome.
We love that.
Great.
Yeah.
Greatest minds of our generation.
Who's the best one?
Oh, I can't pick favorites.
I don't know.
Really?
Maybe you.
I show speed.
Oh, I show speed.
I'm influencer.
I love speed.
Uh.
I think you, I think you, yeah, I think podcasters are influencers at this
point.
I'm not, I'm a former podcaster.
Former podcaster.
Yeah.
Show, well, showman.
YouTube, is this show on YouTube?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so you're a YouTuber.
Am I a YouTuber now?
You're a YouTuber now.
Oh, hey.
I will say the one thought I used to have, you know that one thought you have
about your, yourself?
Yeah.
It's like, you're trying to fall asleep and it's like the worst, it's just like
the biggest like,
like most awful like thought about yourself and then you're like trying to fall
asleep and you're like,
like that, was that you're, that I'm a podcaster who lives in Brooklyn.
And, uh, I feel like I've, I've retired from that.
Uh, and it, it, it feels so good.
Yeah.
Now I'm a YouTuber.
Now you're a YouTuber that lives in Brooklyn.
Jesus Christ.
I should kill myself.
I don't know.
I, I was like very early to embrace the like influencer journalist thing and
that made a lot of people
in like mainstream media really mad at me.
It was seen as trash.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They were like, ah.
But I mean, to some extent you, you were like the first person to recognize
that as like a force
in popular culture.
Yeah.
I mean, maybe like the first person in journalism to like really make it a beat.
I started on Tumblr.
Okay.
Uh, after college.
Yeah, it was the recession.
I was temping, uh, but it was just like, I don't know.
I got good at making viral content.
Okay.
And, uh, this girl at Tumblr, like I got pretty popular on there and like media
people
started to follow me.
And, um, and I was like, maybe I should be in like media or something or like
marketing.
I don't know.
I just didn't know what I was doing, you know?
And, um, this girl at Tumblr had me into the office and was like, yeah, like,
what are you,
what are you doing?
Like, and I was like, I work these temp jobs and I'm working, I was working as
a messenger.
I was working retail and, um, so she helped me get into advertising.
And then I was doing social media for brands and writing about.
Copywriting.
And, uh, yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, and then I, I ran, I wrote for the Verizon wireless Facebook page.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
That was her?
That was her?
My favorite moment from that job.
What?
It was the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Thank God.
And they wanted to put the Verizon logo in the lights.
They wanted to do a Facebook post that was, that was like.
I don't think that's funny.
4G, we kept it going.
It was a terrible day.
Yeah.
Verizon wanted to advertise.
They wanted to do that.
And I just remember being like, this was like before, like,
there was even like really backlash to brands online.
But I was like, I feel like we shouldn't do that.
Yeah, yeah.
And then I, yeah, I was writing.
I was blogging always writing about influencer.
When I was big on Tumblr, like other people that were big on Tumblr were
like Fuck Jerry, The Fat Jew, and a lot of like early YouTubers.
And the mainstream media was like writing really like stupid articles about
them.
And I was like, I'm going to write my own articles about how like this is labor.
And like this is work.
And like internet labor is real labor.
Memes is labor.
Yeah, it's hard labor to make content.
Well, so you approached it as a content creator and then went into journalism.
Yeah.
It's interesting.
I was always, I always had like an audience online even before I was in
journalism.
And then I went into doing, I ran a People Magazine Vine account.
I was doing like social media for like media brands.
I launched all the Daily Mail's social media channels.
Uh-huh.
What was it like working for them bastards?
It was, it was great.
I was, I mean, it was like a crazy job because they just,
I was the youngest woman in like senior management because they like,
this was 2012 when like if you knew how to like do anything on the internet and
get
traffic for them, they were just like, oh my god.
So like I got to go this like executive retreat in a castle in England and tell
them about like Facebook.
With Rupert?
With, no, Rupert doesn't own the Daily Mail.
It's Paul Dacre, it's like, it's the Roth, I can't remember their name.
But it's a different right-wing family in England.
But I mean at this point we can see that like it's had, I mean it's just, it is
culture at this point.
Oh well now it's, they lost that level.
Is there, is that still up for debate amongst legacy media?
Yeah, ye