Washington Post ordered to rehire columnist fired after Charlie Kirk posts
Washington Post global opinions editor Karen Attiah, speaks on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during an Amnesty International-organised event in London on Jul 9, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Isabel Infantes)
Read a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
WASHINGTON: The Washington Post was ordered on Monday (Aug 24) to reinstate columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired over social media posts she wrote in the aftermath of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Kirk was shot dead in September on a Utah college campus, sparking a wave of grief among conservatives and threats of a clampdown on the “radical left” from President Donald Trump.
Attiah wrote on social media afterward that she would not display sadness for Kirk’s killing and shared the activist’s past racist comments about Black women.
She was later fired, with the Post accusing her of “gross misconduct” and of violating its social media policies, according to the paper’s own reporting.
Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time
Buzzword
Create words using the given letters
Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser
Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge
Word Search
Spot as many words as you can
An arbitrator ordered the Post on Monday to rehire Attiah and compensate her with back pay, writing in the decision that the Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” for her dismissal.
Attiah wrote on X that she was “happy” at the decision, saying she had been forced out for “speaking the truth”.
The Post said it respected the arbitration process but declined to comment further.
Attiah had worked at the publication for 11 years and noted that she was the “last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post” at the time of her firing.
In her posts about Kirk, she shared his racist claims that Black women lack “brain processing power” and therefore require help from diversity programs.
Her other posts took aim at the Trump administration’s framing of Kirk as a martyr for the conservative cause.
Since 2013, when billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos purchased the Post, the newspaper’s opinion section has shifted its tone to focus more on “personal liberties and free markets,” according to internal mandates.
Attiah gained recognition as the editor for journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national with US residency who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
US intelligence and a United Nations investigation later concluded that Riyadh bore responsibility for his killing.
Attiah had recruited Khashoggi to write about the Arab world, and published his posthumous last column, which called for free expression in the region.
She has advocated for human rights and free expression in her work ever since.
Source: AFP/ec
Sign up for our newsletters
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Get WhatsApp alerts
Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
About The Author
