Washington Post ordered to rehire Karen Attiah after Charlie Kirk posts

Karen Attiah was fired for posts astir Charlie Kirk’s assassination that the Post said violated its societal media policy.

An autarkic arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to reinstate sentiment columnist Karen Attiah and grant her backmost wage aft uncovering the paper lacked capable grounds to occurrence her.

Attiah was dismissed successful September 2025 pursuing societal media posts astir the assassination of blimpish activistic Charlie Kirk. Attiah’s firing came amid a broader conservative campaign seeking nonrecreational consequences for radical whose comments astir Kirk’s assassination were deemed offensive.

“This determination confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my occupation arsenic an sentiment writer, and this was wrongful termination,” Attiah said successful a statement. “After spending implicit a decennary of my vocation astatine the Post arsenic an exertion and an sentiment columnist focusing connected race, sex and planetary quality rights, I’m relieved to yet person that grounds acceptable straight.”

The determination was issued by backstage arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa, according to a transcript obtained by Attiah’s lawyers and cited by US media. Espinosa determined that the Post had violated its labour statement and did not person capable origin to terminate Attiah.

“The Washington Post failed to found the grievant engaged successful gross misconduct,” Espinosa wrote.

The quality stemmed from posts Attiah made connected Bluesky aft Kirk was killed successful September 2025. In 1 post, she referenced past comments Kirk had made astir Black women.

The Post subsequently said successful Attiah’s termination missive that her posts breached its societal media policy. The argumentation requires employees to guarantee their online behaviour remains respectful and does not harm the integrity of the newspaper’s journalism.

The ruling comes amid wider questions astir the absorption of the Post nether Bezos, who successful February 2025 announced the sentiment conception would reshape its editorial absorption astir themes of idiosyncratic liberties and escaped markets.

The Post has besides faced fiscal pressures. In February, the paper announced layoffs affecting astir a third of its workforce, with cuts reaching its international, editing, metro and sports desks arsenic the institution dealt with mounting fiscal losses.