Washington Post ordered to reinstate opinion writer fired over Charlie Kirk posts

An independent arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire the high-profile opinion columnist Karen Attiah, abruptly fired by the news organization last September over comments she made on social media about Charlie Kirk, the then recently slain conservative activist. On Monday, an arbitrator ruled that the Post had violated her rights as a union-protected employee and ordered the newspaper to reinstate her and compensate her for lost wages. It’s unclear if the company plans to appeal the reinstatement ruling.

Attiah was backed by the union that represents most Post employees, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, and Democracy Defenders Action, a legacy advocacy group co-founded by Norm Eisen. In his own statement, Eisen called it a “thunderous win” for Attiah and “a landmark decision for every journalist who refuses to be silenced”. The Post had argued that Attiah was fired for cause after violating the company’s social media policy, which dictates that employees “must not harm the editorial integrity or journalistic reputation of The Post”.

After Kirk was shot and killed on 10 September 2025, Attiah took to social media and wrote: “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.” She also posted: “Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.” According to the arbitrator’s record of the case, Adam O’Neal, the Post’s opinion editor, had emailed the company’s head of human relations the following morning and said that Attiah’s posts were “beyond the pale- completely unacceptable for someone associated with Opinions”, calling for an urgent meeting. A few hours later, the Post’s top brass, including Will Lewis, then the publisher, met and decided that Attiah’s employment should be terminated because of her social media conduct. O’Neal also testified in the case that Attiah’s posts created security risks for the Post and its journalists.

The union representing Attiah charged that she had not engaged in any kind of misconduct, “let alone gross misconduct”, and that her professional mandate included expressing opinions. The arbitrator, Sarah Miller Espinosa, concluded that it was improper to punish Attiah on the basis of potential security threats to other Post employees.