RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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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\u0027s 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\u0027s opinion desk. The arbitrator, Sarah Miller Espinosa, also ordered the Post to award Attiah full back pay and lost benefits. Kirk, who rose from a teenage conservative campus activist to become a top podcaster and ally of President Trump, was shot and killed Sept. 10 during a public appearance at Utah Valley University. He was 31.Tyler Robinson is\u00a0charged with crimes including aggravated murder\u00a0and has not yet entered a plea. The 23-year-old defendant turned himself in a day after the shooting. 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 "scumbag." 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.Attiah posted after Kirk\u0027s killingAfter Kirk\u0027s killing, Attiah, the founding global opinion editor for the Post and the newspaper\u0027s only Black female opinion writer, made several posts to her Bluesky account.One post read: "Refusing 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." "If anything, the rush to coddle violent white men is self-protective - that we know they are not used to feeling vulnerable and mortal - and will react violently out of fear. And we will all suffer," read another post. Attiah was emailed a termination letter on Sept. 11, accusing her of "gross misconduct." "Your public comments on social media regarding the death of Charlie Kirk violate the Post\u0027s social media policies, harm the integrity of our organization, and potentially endanger the physical safety of our staff," the letter read.But Espinosa found that the newspaper, in a June 4 hearing, 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\u0027s union. "After wrongfully firing me last year, an independent arbitrator has ordered [The Washington Post] to reinstate me immediately, with back pay," Attiah posted on Instagram on Monday. "It\u0027s been a year-long fight, but this is a victory for journalists everywhere. More to come soon."Ruling welcomed as a landmark momentThe Democracy Defenders Fund, which, along with Washington-Baltimore News Guild, represented Attiah, said the ruling marks a landmark moment for press freedom, "confirming that corporate media institutions cannot use retaliatory discipline to silence journalists who address uncomfortable truths." The Post said in a statement to CBS News that it respects the arbitration process, but declined further comment on the matter. At the time, Attiah\u0027s firing was among dozens of others across various professions stemming from comments about Kirk\u0027s assassination, igniting a debate over First Amendment rights as Mr. Trump vowed retribution for remarks he considers disparaging. The National Association of Black Journalists, the nation\u0027s largest professional advocacy organization for journalists of color, added that Attiah\u0027s firing had "raised an alarm about the erosion of Black voices across the media."Other workers fired for comments about Kirk\u0027s murderSeveral businesses and other organizations fired employees because of their public remarks about Kirk after the conservative commentator was killed last year. PHNX Sports, an online sports news site focused on Arizona, announced the firing of reporter Gerald Bourguet after he said on social media, in a since-deleted post, that "Refusing to mourn a life devoted to that cause is not the same thing as celebrating gun violence.""Truly don\u0027t care if you think it\u0027s insensitive or poor timing to decline to respect an evil man who died," he added.\u00a0MSNBC\u00a0said\u00a0it cut ties with analyst Matthew Dowd after he said in an on-air conversation that Kirk had pushed incendiary speech and that "hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions." In a public statement, Comcast accused Dowd of making "an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event."\u00a0Other organizations also took action against workers who spoke out about Kirk. Middle Tennessee State University said in a\u00a0statement\u00a0that it had fired a university employee over "inappropriate and callous comments on social media concerning the horrific and tragic murder of Charlie Kirk."Nasdaq, in a statement\u00a0posted\u00a0on X, said it dismissed an employee over social media posts related to Kirk\u0027s shooting that the stock exchange said "were a clear violation of our policy."In a Facebook post, the U.S. Secret Service said it placed an agent who it said\u00a0expressed negative opinions\u00a0about Kirk on leave. "The U.S. Secret Service will not tolerate behavior that violates our code of conduct. This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun," a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement.
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