What Karen Attiah Said on Charlie Kirk as WaPo Ordered To Rehire Her
Washington Post is ordered to rehire the columnist, who was fired after remarks on Kirk's death.
The Washington Post has been ordered to rehire Karen Attiah, the fired opinion columnist, and compensate her with back pay nearly a year after her dismissal. Attiah was terminated as the global opinions editor over social media posts related to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a separate shooting in Colorado.
Private arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa ruled that the Post failed to establish that Attiah engaged in gross misconduct. Her termination letter from September 11 stated that she was fired for gross misconduct following her social media comments about Kirk's death, which allegedly violated the Post's social media policies, harmed the organization's integrity, and potentially endangered staff safety.
The letter highlighted two Bluesky posts Attiah made on September 10, the day Kirk was killed. In one post, she criticized the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness, and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence. In another post, she attributed a quote about Black women to Kirk. A week later, Attiah admitted to originally misattributing the quote to Kirk and added a link to an article about Charlie Kirk's anti-Black statements.
She also expressed frustration about America's acceptance of white children being massacred by gun violence and the lack of action to curb gun availability.
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