Men Yell at Lyz Lenz
Lyz Lenz, author of the newsletter column, 'Men Yell at Me," was a college freshman when she got her first taste of what it feels like to have readers angry over what she wrote.
The school newspaper editor assigned her to cover sorority and fraternity Rush week at the university.
"She must have known she was throwing me under the bus," said Lenz in a Zoom interview. "I was a nerd with big glasses and short frizzy hair who had been home-schooled until high school. I didn't know anything about sororities and fraternities."
The day her story ran, she walked into the cafeteria, where a group of coeds poured over her column. One called her a bitch. And that's when she realized the power of words. And skewering 'sacred cows.'
"I'd never had a room full of people listen to me before," said Lenz. "I felt empowered. If I write well enough, it doesn't matter what I look like or how annoying my voice sounds; people will listen."
I discovered Lenz through Twitter shortly after she began writing for The Cedar Rapids Gazette. She earned national attention for her local news and opinion columns. Lenz moderated a presidential debate forum. She was a panelist for the edgy 'Lovett or Leave It' political podcast when it broadcast from Iowa City's Hancher Auditorium just before the caucuses. She was funny and right at home on the nationally broadcast must-listen show for political junkies.
Wow, I thought. The Gazette is going for it with this hire.
In her introductory column post on August 8, 2019, Lenz wrote:
I am an angry woman. My anger fills my words and opinions. It spills out on the floor of my sentences and floods up my paragraphs. I feel it when I sit quietly on my porch sipping whiskey. Or loud nights out with friends. My anger is my constant and closest friend.
In October of 2020, Lenz tweeted: The paper fired me this morning over one year later.
That was fast.
Lenz isn’t quite ready to talk publicly about the specifics cited in the firing. She will say for the record, in her opinion, her firing was, at it’s core, politically motivated. She has since received two cease-and-desist letters from her former employer for even mentioning the firing online, even though she is not bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
There's plenty of fodder to comb through just looking at Twitter comments from folks on the left who thought she threw softballs to Elizabeth Warren on an LGBTQ forum and take issue with her criticism of Joe Biden. However, the overwhelming majority of her critics are from the right.
Conservative candidates across the country stopped the long-held tradition of meeting with newspaper editorial boards, and the Gazette, too, made the cancel list. Some point to Lenz as one of the reasons.
Governor Kim Reynolds was blasted by Lenz repeatedly for her handling of the spread of Covid in Iowa. She was mad at all government leaders who were slow to respond to the horrific damage to Cedar Rapids due to the Derecho that flattened large swaths of the city.
Lenz is mad at the lack of diversity in newsrooms. Right before she was fired, she was developing a story about the Iowa grocery store chain, Hy-Vee, pressuring employees to vote for GOP candidates. As far as sacred cows go, there are few bigger for local newspapers than this significant advertiser.
And the title of her September 22, 2020 column was "Grassley is lying again." https://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/staff-columnist/grassleys-lying-again-20200922
She's been yelled at by Tucker Carlson, Alan Dershowitz, and many more in the interviews she has conducted for pieces she's written for the Columbia Journalism Review.
Lenz is 38; there will likely be a lot more men yelling at her. She grew up in an evangelical home, married at age 22, now divorced with two kids, and is candid in her writing about this background.
As for what's next, for now, she'll stay in Cedar Rapids.
"I love this place so much," said Lenz. "Iowa and middle America encapsulate a lot of the contradictions of our nation. The Washington Post can run a story about Cedar Rapids, and 90% of the people who live here won't see it or care. But when their local paper covers a story, it makes a difference."
This career pivot is turning out just fine for Lenz. She has about 10,000 subscribers to the free version of her Substack column and enough paid subscribers, along with her freelance work, that she's making a lot more money than she did as a Gazette columnist.
Connie Schultz, author and syndicated columnist tweeted this about a recent column by Lenz. The best essays are always about more than their words. This is one, by @lyzl:
https://lyz.substack.com/p/running-through-2020
Click to subscribe to Men Yell at Me
Lyz is interviewed about her book, God Land, and her personal view of religion.
More Lyz Lenz writings: https://lyzlenz.contently.com
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Lyz to appear: Okoboji Writers’ Retreat
Lyz Lenz: is featured speaker at the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat. She’ll work with attendees interested in writing commentary and humor. Enroll.
I have truly admired Lyz' writing and wondered what had happened! Thanks for the insights. I was glad to subscribe.
Julie, I don't know the circumstances, but I know it is hard to be bold at newspapers with timid managements easily pressured by powerful people and advertisers. My novel in the works deals with it.