Former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz — the blogger who doxxed Libs of TikTok in 2022, called breathing without a mask “raw dogging the air,” and expressed “joy” over UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination — appears to have finally stumbled across a story of value.
Lorenz detailed in a piece for Wired magazine this week how a dark money group has launched a “secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet,” offering would-be propagandists up to $8,000 a month for their services but requiring in exchange the surrender of a significant amount of creative control as well as “extensive secrecy about disclosing their payments.”
‘You failed. You didn’t influence anyone. You made fools of yourself.’
Lorenz indicated that among those allegedly approached with contracts by Chorus, the apparent nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketing platform, was nonstraight activist Laurenzo; Eliza Orlins, a public defender who once competed on “The Amazing Race”; and one of the pro-abortion zealots behind the Women in America account on TikTok — three individuals who did not respond to Lorenz’s requests for comment.
Other influencers allegedly involved “in communication about the program” include: 2024 Democratic National Convention speaker and Gen Z influencer Olivia Julianna; Playboy executive turned podcaster Loren Piretra; leftist YouTuber David Pakman; and Sander Jennings, the brother of Jared Jennings — the boy called “Jazz” whose genital mutilation was promoted on reality television.
Chorus has reportedly boasted that its initial propagandist cohort has a collective audience of over 40 million followers.
Blaze News senior politics editor Christopher Bedford said Thursday on “The Mandate” that “this was designed to reach out to among the most unstable TikTokers you’ve ever seen — the kind of folks who were at the White House with the nine-inch nails talking about how everything is gay and how great Joe Biden is because everything is gay now. These are the people that they are trying to pay — and they were also trying to control the message.”
“My favorite part about the story is how incredibly incompetent this operation was,” said Bedford. “Reading through it, I’m thinking: Well, you failed. You didn’t influence anyone. You made fools of yourself.”
This initiative, the Chorus Creator Incubator Program, is funded by the second-largest super-PAC donor in 2020, the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
Politico indicated that the Sixteen Thirty Fund forked out $410 million in 2020 in an effort to torpedo President Donald Trump’s re-election and to help Democrats take control of the Senate. It has kept up pressure in the years since.
According to Influence Watch, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is not obligated to reveal its contributors, is managed by Arabella Advisors — a leftist, for-profit dark money group based in Washington, D.C., that is presently undergoing a messy breakup with the Gates Foundation.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund confirmed to the New York Post that it is serving Chorus as a “fiscal sponsor” and providing it with “operational and administrative support.”
The Chorus Creator Incubator Program was reportedly launched in July. The propagandists involved were notified that over 90 influencers would take part.
Some of those who apparently signed on told Wired that the “contract stipulated they’d be kicked out and essentially cut off financially if they even so much as acknowledged that they were part of the program.”
RELATED: Democrats want a new Joe Rogan — but their dogma won’t allow it
Blaze Media Illustration
Copies of the contract reviewed by Wired apparently confirm these claims, indicating that participants cannot disclose their relationship with Chorus or the Sixteen Thirty Fund and cannot disclose that they’re paid shills.
In addition to their discretion, program participants must allegedly clear all of their bookings with lawmakers and political leaders through Chorus.
On a Zoom call reviewed by Wired, Graham Wilson, a lawyer working with Chorus, allegedly told participants, “There are some real great advantages to … housing this program in a nonprofit.”
“It gives us the ability to raise money from donors. It also, with this structure, it avoids a lot of the public disclosure or public disclaimers — you know, ‘Paid for by blah blah blah blah’ — that you see on political ads,” Wilson allegedly said. “We don’t need to deal with any of that. Your names aren’t showing up on, like, reports filed with the FEC.”
‘They don’t know how to deal with bad press.’
Wilson did not respond to Wired’s request for comment, and the Federal Election Commission declined to comment.
Ellie Langford, the director of programming at Chorus, reportedly told liberal influencers on a Zoom call in June, “Our political systems haven’t been able to figure out a real solution, and I’ve been really excited to see you all treading the path forward. I deeply, deeply believe that the work you all are doing is what’s going to make the difference in supporting and frankly resuscitating our democracy.”
Bedford noted that this ham-fisted effort on the part of leftists to regain control of the public discourse made him realize that “in the last couple of decades, while the American right has been building an alternative media system, which has become extremely successful and really launched into cool mode around 2011, 2012, with Daily Caller, but then finally came into its own with the meme wars in 2016.”
“They’re 10, 20 years ahead of where Democrats are,” continued Bedford. “Democrats don’t know what to do if ABC and CBS and CNN lay off half their employees. That’s all they know. It’s their only game in town. They don’t know how to deal with bad press. They don’t know how to deal with new media — and they’re going to have to learn real quick.”
Bedford noted further that it’s clear from liberals’ desperation to find and anoint a Joe Rogan-caliber influencer that they’ve missed the point.
“They put politics before entertainment. ‘We need a liberal Joe Rogan.’ No, you don’t. You just need to convince Joe Rogan,” added Bedford.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Arabella, Sixteen thirty fund, Chorus, Influencers, Propaganda, Democrat, Leftist, Taylor lorenz, Democrats, Joe rogan, Politics
