The Washington Post has been directed to reinstate a columnist who was fired over a series a posts made in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The columnist, Karen Attiah, previously called Kirk a “white [man] who espouse hatred and violence.” She also 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.”
“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct,” Attiah said in a statement issued through her lawyer and reported by The Hill. “After spending over a decade of my career at the Post as an editor and an opinion columnist focusing on race, gender and global human rights, I’m relieved to finally have that record set straight.”
In a statement on X, Attiah said, “The Washington Post fired me last year for speaking the truth after Charlie Kirk’s killing. I fought back. I’m happy to announce: I won my case against the Washington Post. They have been ordered to reinstate me immediately.”
According to arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa, the newspaper “did not have good and sufficient cause” to fire Attiah and “violated” its labor agreement, Reuters reports. “The Washington Post failed to establish the grievant engaged in gross misconduct,” Espinosa wrote.
Attiah took action against her termination last October. She wrote on Substack at the time that she “retained the Democracy Defenders Fund” to “challenge the termination.”
