Ronan Farrow recently defended himself against an “alt-right influencer” who “tweets memes about Jews drinking Christian baby blood” — a decision he made after the influencer accused him of taking part in a Taylor Swift-orchestrated takedown of Justin Baldoni.
As Farrow told Monica Lewinsky Tuesday on her “Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky” podcast, he initially wanted to ignore the charges but, “I realized, no, we are living in a time when people will go out and attack someone and, like, gleefully.”
Farrow didn’t identify the influencer in question, only that she “tweets memes about Jews drinking Christian baby blood and, like, helped to radicalize Kanye West into racism, like into anti-Black sentiment.” She has “a real following,” something Farrow attributed to people “in this climate of not trusting reality.”
“And she uploaded this crazy conspiracy theory completely divorced from facts,” Farrow continued. “She actually, she started by getting up and saying, ‘Ronan Farrow is the most powerful journalist at the New York Times.’ I don’t even write for the New York Times. I have no connection to the paper.”
(Farrow works for the New Yorker.)
Watch the whole podcast interview below:
“But her premise was basically that I had been photographed with my boyfriend coming out of drinks with Taylor Swift, and that Taylor Swift was friends with Blake Lively, the actress,” he added. “And that Blake Lively was engaged in this lawsuit with this guy Justin Baldoni. And then the New York Times — after I had drinks with Taylor Swift — did a story, which I had no knowledge of, I had no contact with, didn’t encourage in any way.”
The woman insisted Farrow “had orchestrated with Taylor Swift the destruction of [Baldoni],” he said. “I have never done any reporting on this guy. I have nothing to do with this. And for a while, I was getting essentially doxxed by this woman, she sent out her followers and every possible channel of public communication was, you know, ‘You’re just dirt. You’re worthless. You destroyed this man.’ Again, complete fiction.”
Farrow initially tried to ignore the situation because it was “so far from reality — why engage with it?” But he soon “realized, ‘No, we are living in a time when people will go out and attack someone and, like ,gleefully be like, you know, this influencer is taking you down,’ without even Googling what paper I write for.”
Farrow previously addressed these rumors in February 2025 after a fan commented on Instagram asking why he was “taking down Justin Baldoni.”
“No–I don’t write for the New York Times,” Farrow responded, “and have nothing to do with their coverage of the case, even informally or behind the scenes. I write for the New Yorker (a completely different outlet), and if I ever were to look into this, you’d see my work there. There’s a lot of disinformation out there—please always try to think independently and check what you’re hearing online.”
Watch the exchange between Lewinsky and Farrow in the video above.
