An arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to reinstate a Black opinion writer fired over social media posts about violent white men following last year’s killing of Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n
The ruling Thursday said the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to\u00a0terminate Karen Attiah<\/a>, who at the time was the last Black full-time member of\u00a0the Post\u2019s opinion desk<\/a>. The arbitrator, Sarah Miller Espinosa, also ordered the Post to award Attiah full back pay and lost benefits.<\/p>\n Kirk, who rose from a teenage conservative campus activist to become a top podcaster and ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Sept. 10 during a public appearance at Utah Valley University. He was 31.<\/p>\n Kirk launched Turning Point USA in 2012 and made provocative statements about race, gender and politics. He was critical of the Black Lives Matter movement on college campuses and called George Floyd, the Black man whose 2020 murder at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked protests, a \u201cscumbag.\u201d<\/p>\n His death elicited a torrent of comments about him, both pro and con, and some who spoke out against him in the days after the killing faced sanctions or dismissal at work.<\/p>\n Attiah posted after Kirk’s killing<\/p>\n After Kirk’s killing, Attiah, the founding global opinion editor for the Post and the newspaper’s only Black female opinion writer, made several posts to her Bluesky account.<\/p>\n One post read: \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 \u201cIf anything, the rush to coddle violent white men is self-protective \u2014 that we know they are not used to feeling vulnerable and mortal \u2014 and will react violently out of fear. And we will all suffer,\u201d read another post.<\/p>\n Attiah was emailed a termination letter on Sept. 11, accusing her of \u201cgross misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour public comments on social media regarding the death of Charlie Kirk violate the Post\u2019s social media policies, harm the integrity of our organization, and potentially endanger the physical safety of our staff,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n But Espinosa found that the newspaper, in a June 4 hearing, failed to establish that Attiah \u201cengaged in gross misconduct\u201d and that the Post \u201cdid not have good and sufficient cause to terminate\u201d her employment, which violated the collective bargaining agreement with the newspaper’s union.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter wrongfully firing me last year, an independent arbitrator has ordered the @washingtonpost to reinstate me immediately, with back pay,\u201d Attiah\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s been a year-long fight, but this is a victory for journalists everywhere. More to come soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Ruling welcomed as a landmark moment<\/p>\n The Democracy Defenders Fund, which, along with Washington-Baltimore News Guild, represented Attiah, said the ruling marks a landmark moment for press freedom, \u201cconfirming that corporate media institutions cannot use retaliatory discipline to silence journalists who address uncomfortable truths.\u201d<\/p>\n The Post said in a statement that it respects the arbitration process, but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n