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New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz’s Twitter profile states that she writes about “technology, memes, influencers, and online culture.” What it does not include, but which we now know, is that Lorenz’s focus extends to cultivating strange relationships with the teenage children of Republican political figures.

Over the last couple of days, Lorenz has shared the TikToks of 15-year-old Claudia Conway, the daughter of Kellyanne Conway and George Conway. Kellyanne is a senior legal adviser/counselor to President Trump, while George is the de facto leader of the #NeverTrump “resistance” movement.

The reason Lorenz apparently finds the TikToks fascinating is because Claudia is, like her dad, not a fan of Trump’s, and has said as much in some of her videos (note: the below video appears to have been changed to “private” after Lorenz shared it on Twitter):

Kellyanne Conway’s daughter posting “save Barron 2020” content on TikTok https://t.co/3J5TVieIrp pic.twitter.com/z42ylMmIh8

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 30, 2020

Numerous Twitter users found Lorenz sharing Claudia’s TikTok’s a bit on the creepy side, especially considering Claudia’s age and the fact that highlighting the views of the underage children of political figures is generally considered off-limits, no matter how public their social media profiles allegedly are:

I'm genuinely curious why you are sharing a 15 year old's posts with hundreds of thousands of people? Is there not a general rule that we leave politician's kids out of it?

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) June 30, 2020

Lorenz defended herself by essentially saying the videos were already public and that she and Claudia were “mutuals” so it’s all good:

To ppl being like “NYT journalist trying to expose her.” Claudia and I are mutuals and I literally talked to her. Also she’s been posting vids shouting out her fam on TikTok w/ tens of thousands of views, she wants followers/views and is outspoken abt her own beliefs. Don’t hate! pic.twitter.com/195Fm72C4h

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 30, 2020

She already had thousands of views and has been going viral on TikTok for her vids about her mom, also I talked to her abt tweeting and we are mutuals. Idk what you want but she’s her own person growing her own online audience! https://t.co/yUezOb4Fh5 https://t.co/onFFtdkfKR

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 30, 2020

But isn’t it, you know, strange for an adult reporter with an angle to exploit to be “mutuals” with a teenager? Yes – yes it is:

Super creepy.

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) June 30, 2020

Kind of weird to be “mutuals” with a 15 yr old

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) June 30, 2020

Not to Lorenz, though, who claims it’s her beat to cover the social media profiles of teenagers:

Not for me! I write about teenage influencers and TikTok stars. I think it’s great that young people are making their voices and views heard online. You can read my coverage here 🙂 https://t.co/ZB9ZIlG10z

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 30, 2020

So it’s ok to cover the child of a political figure long as it’s your beat? No, not really. Nor is it “news”:

The TikTok feed of a teenage kid whose parents are high profile political rivals is not news.

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) June 30, 2020

Hey so maybe major news outlets shouldn't be randomly blasting Kellyanne Conway's 15 year old daughter out onto Twitter to their hundreds of thousands of followers…

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) June 30, 2020

Indeed. What it is “good for”, however, is to show the divisions in the Conway family over Trump are deeper than previously known, which is a win-win for the anti-Trumpists at the New York Times – even if it was done at the expense of their teenage daughter who, while having a public profile, didn’t have nearly the exposure until Lorenz amplified her message to her 154,000 Twitter followers.

(Hat tip: Twitchy)