Thread by @SethAbramson

Today I learned Lenz (@LyzL) approached CJR to write a hitpiece on me—now proven to have 25+ lies in it—a matter of *days* after getting fired by the CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE (I don't know if her infamous racist questioning of VP Harris played a role). Now we know what motivated her.

I learned a lot about myself and media and what I want for my future over the last week, though the work to get accountability for what CJR and Lenz did to try to rescue Lenz's career continues. Still, knowing I was maliciously lied about to distract from a firing helps me heal.

I had no idea the person who lied to me and about me for 2 months has a documented history of racism. Nor did I know she'd lost her job as a journalist and started a Substack at the moment she tried to destroy my life as a journalist and *my* Substack. Really, really scary stuff.

Friends who saw the emotional toll being lied about 25 times by CJR took on me express anger at what Lenz—premeditatedly—did to me. I've told them I'm hurt, but don't have that sort of anger. She's dealing with her own stuff; we all are. I just wish she hadn't taken it out on me.

When someone lies to you about the subject of their piece and about whether they'll contact you for corrections and about the material they'll use and then screams and hangs up on you when you offer proof they published 25 lies, you get scared and you don't know what's happening.

I told my wife I was scared. I told her I had bared my soul to a person and felt like they'd insinuated themselves into my life to try to destroy me not just emotionally and professionally but to try to get me to self-destruct in every possible way. So what I learned today helps.

When all of these vicious lies that I had proof were untrue were then repeated by people whose journalism I had retweeted and relied upon in my own curations, it was terrifying in a way I can't describe. My heart pounded for days like someone was trying to kill me. I was *lost*.

Finding out that this person who effectively tried to assassinate me with lies had themselves faced the trauma of a public attack—in her case, a warranted one for racist questioning of Kamala Harris—and then lost her job, actually helped me remember we're all bruised and hurting.

Having said that, I know this trauma will be with me for a while, as I know what happened behind the scenes. I won't trust people again the way I did before. I can only urge anyone contacted by Lyz Lenz for an interview to politely decline, because she will lie to you ruthlessly.

I'm in contact with Columbia University to figure out my options. I wish Lenz luck going forward in writing columns that don't involve interviews, but can't do anything but warn any potential interview subject to under no circumstances speak with her. She is a deliberate defamer.

I am sorry for being so emotional this week. I have had a tightness in my chest from stress since this all began many days ago. I have always been clear on this feed that I am a real person who is sensitive and does not ever think of himself as invulnerable. Exactly the opposite.

There are so many great people in media. I thank them by name in my books, and often thank them in the aggregate for making high-level curatorial journalism possible. Then there are those without scruples—whose actions are enabled by *others* without scruples. This has to change.

I haven't wanted to clutter up my feed with discussions of this more than I already have. Just know that proof of every one of these 25 lies has been sent to Columbia University and is incontrovertible. This is as infamous a systemic course of defamation as I've ever encountered.

For all that—despite feeling shell-shocked, scared, and bewildered—I continue to be an incredibly lucky person who has the support of friends and family and literally thousands of readers here who've sent their best wishes. Without all of you, I don't know what would've happened.