Washington Post ordered to reinstate Black opinion writer fired after Charlie Kirk posts
- An arbitrator ordered The Washington Post to reinstate Karen Attiah, a Black opinion writer fired over social media posts about Charlie Kirk's death.
- The ruling stated that the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to terminate Attiah's employment.
- Attiah was the last Black full-time member of the Post’s opinion desk at the time of her firing.
- The arbitrator found that the Post failed to establish that Attiah engaged in gross misconduct.
- The ruling was welcomed as a significant moment for press freedom by the Democracy Defenders Fund.
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. The ruling Thursday said the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to terminate Karen Attiah, who at the time was the last Black full-time member of the Post’s opinion desk.
The arbitrator, Sarah Miller Espinosa, also ordered the Post to award Attiah full back pay and lost benefits. Attiah was emailed a termination letter on Sept. 11, accusing her of “gross misconduct” for her comments regarding Kirk's death.
Espinosa found that the newspaper failed to establish that Attiah engaged in gross misconduct and that the Post did not have good and sufficient cause to terminate her employment, which violated the collective bargaining agreement with the newspaper’s union.
华盛顿邮报被命令恢复因查理·柯克帖子被解雇的黑人专栏作家
仲裁员命令华盛顿邮报恢复因社交媒体帖子被解雇的黑人专栏作家凯伦·阿提亚的职位。裁决指出，该报没有充分理由终止阿提亚的雇佣关系，阿提亚在被解雇时是华盛顿邮报意见专栏的最后一位黑人全职成员。
仲裁员莎拉·米勒·埃斯皮诺萨还命令华盛顿邮报支付阿提亚全额的补偿和失去的福利。阿提亚在9月11日收到了解雇通知，指控她因对柯克死亡的评论而“严重不当行为”。
埃斯皮诺萨发现，该报未能证明阿提亚参与了严重不当行为，并且华盛顿邮报没有充分理由终止她的雇佣关系，这违反了与报社工会的集体谈判协议。