The Washington Post last week reportedly dismissed longtime columnist Karen Attiah, citing her social media posts on gun control and race following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The move, which Attiah has condemned as censorship, underscores growing questions about the newspaper’s standards — and its tolerance for incendiary rhetoric from the left.
“As a columnist, I used my voice to defend freedom and democracy, challenge power and reflect on culture and politics with honesty and conviction,” Attiah wrote Monday on Substack. “Now, I am the one being silenced — for doing my job.”
Attiah, who published on the left-leaning social media app Bluesky, had criticized what she described as America’s cultural acceptance of violence.
“I pointed to the familiar pattern of America shrugging off gun deaths, and giving compassion for white men who commit and espouse political violence,” she said.
Her remarks came just days after Kirk, 31, was gunned down while speaking at Utah Valley University. Federal authorities have charged a 22-year-old man in the killing.
Vigils and memorials for Kirk — who co-founded Turning Point USA and served as a popular voice for young conservatives — have been held across the country.
In her Substack post, Attiah insisted that her comments did not directly target Kirk, except for sharing one of his public statements.
She included a screenshot of a remark in which Kirk was quoted as saying that several prominent Black women “do not have brain processing power to be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot.”
According to Attiah, The Post deemed her messages “unacceptable,” “gross misconduct,” and a threat to “the physical safety of colleagues.” She rejected the charges as “false,” calling them “without evidence.”
“They rushed to fire me without even a conversation,” she wrote. “This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold.”
The decision marks a rare instance in which the Washington Post has moved swiftly against a writer for social media activity.
Conservatives have long criticized the paper for double standards, arguing that progressive commentators are often given license to use inflammatory language while voices on the right face scrutiny.
Attiah, who had written frequently on race, politics, and foreign affairs, portrayed her firing as an attack on free expression.
Yet her dismissal came at a moment when many Americans, including political leaders from both parties, had called for lowering the temperature of public debate following Kirk’s murder.
The FBI has warned that online rhetoric celebrating political violence risks encouraging further attacks.
While Attiah framed her departure as a blow to journalistic freedom, her critics contend the firing reflects overdue accountability. For the Post, which has struggled in recent years with declining readership and internal controversies, the episode raises broader questions about how the paper balances editorial independence with basic workplace standards.
In the end, Attiah said, the paper failed to live up to its own ideals. “This was not only a hasty overreach,” she wrote, “but a violation of the very standards … the Post claims to uphold.”
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