{"id":7317,"date":"2026-08-24T16:11:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7317"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:11:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:11:53","slug":"washington-post-ordered-to-rehire-columnist-karen-attiah-who-called-charlie-kirk-white-man-that-espoused-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7317","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post ordered to rehire columnist Karen Attiah who called Charlie Kirk ‘white man that espoused violence’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

An arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire Karen Attiah, the opinion columnist who was fired last September after she blasted Charlie Kirk as \u201ca white man that espoused violence\u201d the day of his brutal assassination.<\/p>\n

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In a written decision Thursday, arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa said WaPo \u201cdid not have good and sufficient cause\u201d to fire the scribe and \u201cviolated\u201d its labor agreement with the controversial columnist.<\/p>\n

Espinosa ordered the legacy newspaper to compensate Attiah with back pay and lost benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision confirms what we\u2019ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct,\u201d Attiah told The Post in a statement, adding that she is \u201crelieved to finally have that record set straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that she hopes her win \u201csends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Washington Post said the company respects the arbitration process and declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

The decision \u2013 which is binding, according to WaPo\u2019s labor agreement \u2013 caps off a yearlong battle after Attiah argued a slew of controversial social media posts she fired off the day of Kirk\u2019s shocking killing did not violate company policy.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 10, 2025, Attiah wrote in a Bluesky post: \u201cPart of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men that espouse hatred and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another post that day, she wrote: \u201cRefusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is \u2026 not the same as violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Bluesky posts took aim at widespread mourning from politicians and other public figures across social media for Kirk, the conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA who was gunned down at a university event in Utah at the age of 31.<\/p>\n

The following day, Attiah \u2013 who spent 11 years at WaPo as a columnist focused on race and gender issues, and was the last remaining full-time black person on the opinion masthead \u2013 received a termination letter from the company.<\/p>\n

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Wayne Connell, WaPo\u2019s chief HR officer, wrote that Attiah\u2019s Bluesky posts had violated the company\u2019s social media policies, harmed \u201cthe integrity of our organization\u201d and potentially endangered \u201cthe physical safety of our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe poor judgment exhibited by your public comments regarding Charlie Kirk arise against the backdrop of documented performance concerns, which have been raised with you,\u201d the letter added.<\/p>\n

In August 2025, Status newsletter had reported that Attiah had a tense meeting with Adam O\u2019Neal \u2013 then the newly-hired, right-leaning opinion editor who was tapped by Jeff Bezos to revamp the section with a focus on \u201cfree markets and personal liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, O\u2019Neal announced he was stepping down less than a year into the role. It\u2019s just the latest hit to the opinion section amid Bezos\u2019 efforts to add more conservative writers to its ranks, as a string of left-leaning journos exited the paper and loyal readers canceled their subscriptions.<\/p>\n

Attiah\u2019s case against the WaPo went to arbitration in June and included testimony from her, O\u2019Neal and Connell. Attiah was represented by lawyers from Democracy Defenders Action, a nonprofit co-founded by lawyer Norman Eisen, and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal testified that he became aware of Attiah\u2019s social media posts on the morning of Sept. 11, 2025 and texted Connell: \u201cKaren\u2019s social media feed yesterday and today is beyond the pale \u2013 completely unacceptable for someone associated with Opinions,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Later that morning, O\u2019Neal and Connell met with Will Lewis \u2013 then the chief executive of the paper, who has also since resigned \u2013 and all three of them agreed \u201cthat termination was the appropriate response,\u201d with Lewis having \u201cfinal say,\u201d O\u2019Neal testified.<\/p>\n

Attiah defended her social media posts during her testimony, saying they were part of her work as an opinion columnist \u201ccommenting on our discourse on political violence\u201d and \u201cgun violence\u201d in America, the decision said.<\/p>\n

Eisen, one of Attiah\u2019s lawyers, called the decision \u201ca thunderous victory for Karen Attiah, an award-winning journalist fired for doing her job, over Bezos\u2019 Washington Post.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Post tried to pass off retaliation as discipline, but the rule of law has exposed it for what it truly is: wrongful termination,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Read more Browns make starting quarterback decision after Deshaun Watson-Shedeur Sanders battle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire Karen Attiah, the opinion columnist who was fired last September after she blasted Charlie Kirk as \u201ca white man that espoused violence\u201d the day of his brutal assassination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington Post ordered to rehire columnist Karen Attiah who called Charlie Kirk 'white man that espoused violence' - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7317\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington Post ordered to rehire columnist Karen Attiah who called Charlie Kirk 'white man that espoused violence' - 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