(1) You leapt from "Taylor Lorenz did this" to "The New York Times sends out agents to harass and stalk perceived enemies"; those two things are not the same, and I suspect if we were talking about entities you had more positive feelings about, you wouldn't conflate the two. (This is not to say that what an NYT reporter does on their own time can't reflect on the Times, but that the NYT is not automatically responsible for it.)

(2) "Going so far as to spread demonstrable lies about them" is... not how I would be comfortable describing what happened in this case. Again, Taylor Lorenz's Twitter account is not the same as a bylined article in the NYT, and you seem to be conflating them. Furthermore, there's no compelling evidence that her original accusation about Andreessen was made in bad faith. "She tried real hard to get into those private chats" may be a demonstration of nosiness, but not automatically one of ill intent.

(3) "Stasi seems only mildly hyperbolic": Sorry, but I'm going to insist that comparing four decades of what's widely considered to be one of the most oppressive state security agencies that ever existed and a reporter falsely tweeting "Marc Andreessen called somebody a retard in a private chat" is more than mildly hyperbolic.

Yes there is. According to others on the call, the word "retard" was uttered by a woman, and in a completely appropriate manner given the context. Taylor claimed Mr. Andreesen said it, and that he said it in a manner that warranted calling out. When her "mistake" was revealed, she responded not with an apology, but another lie to divert blame. Her claims had no apparent relation with reality, and her recent antagonism of Mr. Andreesen gives us no reason to assume this was all a big misunderstanding.