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- The Washington Post fired columnist Karen Attiah, citing two social-media posts about white men in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing.
- Attiah’s firing prompted concerns from the Post’s guild and free press advocates.
- Two Post insiders said Attiah had been confronted multiple times by management about social posts.
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah made a flurry of social media posts after Charlie Kirk’s death. The Post cited two Bluesky posts in particular that led to her firing.
Attiah published a Substack post on Monday saying she was fired for “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.”
The Post’s termination letter to her quotes one of her posts that said, “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is….not the same as violence.” A second post quoted in the letter says, “Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.”
“Your postings on Bluesky (which clearly identifies you as a Post Columnist) about white men in response to the killing of Charlie Kirk do not comply with our policy,” the letter says. The Post’s policy prohibits postings that disparage people based on their race, gender, or other protected characteristics.
The media newsletter Status earlier published a copy of the letter, and Attiah confirmed its authenticity to Business Insider.
A Washington Post spokesperson said the paper doesn’t comment on personnel matters.
Two Post insiders with direct knowledge said Attiah had been confronted multiple times by the paper’s management over her social-media posts. At least one case became public: In 2020, she apologized on social media for erroneously saying that a new French law targeted Muslim children.
The two insiders also said that when the paper offered buyouts several months ago, Attiah was encouraged to take one. She chose to stay.
Attiah didn’t comment on her previous discussions with management about her social media posts or the buyout offer.
The firing has drawn strong rebuke from the Post’s union and press advocates, who worry that it reflects a political climate chilling free expression. The Post Guild, the union representing Post employees, including Attiah, said on X that it condemned her “unjust firing” over social-media posts.
“The firing and suspension of multiple journalists after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk should alarm anyone who cares about free speech and a free press,” said Suzanne Trimel, a spokeswoman for the freedom of expression advocacy organization PEN America, referencing the firing of MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd and the suspension of Florida Politics reporter A.G. Gancarski.
Dowd was fired after saying on air in the wake of Kirk’s shooting that “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.” The CEO of MSNBC parent Comcast, along with two other company leaders, subsequently sent a memo to staff urging them to “maintain a respectful exchange of ideas.”
“I didn’t see anything in her posts that I thought was so extreme and in such awful taste that I would expect her to lose her job over that — under normal circumstances,” Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said of Attiah.
Companies outside the media ecosystem, including Nasdaq and Delta, have taken action after employees posted about Kirk’s killing. Nasdaq said it fired an employee because it has “a zero-tolerance policy toward violence and any commentary that condones or celebrates violence.” Delta suspended an unknown number of staffers, with its CEO writing they were under investigation because their posts “went well beyond healthy, respectful debate.”
Attiah’s firing comes a few months after the Jeff Bezos-owned Post overhauled its opinion section, which now focuses on “personal liberties and free markets.” That led to the departure of opinion editor David Shipley and several of his colleagues, and the appointment of Adam O’Neal to replace him in June.
Attiah joined the Post in 2014. She recruited Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi and later won a number of awards for her reporting on his murder.
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