An arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to rehire opinion columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired last September following social media posts she made after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa ruled that the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to terminate Attiah and violated its labor agreement with the columnist.
The decision also mandates that The Washington Post compensate Attiah with back pay and lost benefits. Espinosa's ruling is binding, according to the newspaper's labor agreement.
Attiah, who had worked at The Post for 11 years focusing on race and gender issues, stated that the decision validates her position. "This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct," Attiah said in a statement. She expressed hope that the outcome "sends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for."
A spokesperson for The Washington Post acknowledged the company respects the arbitration process but declined to comment further.
The social media posts in question were made on September 10, 2025, the same day Kirk was killed. Attiah wrote in one post, "Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men that espouse hatred and violence." In another, she stated, "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."
Her posts were in response to widespread public mourning for Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, who was shot and killed at a university event in Utah at age 31.
Following the posts, Attiah received a termination letter on September 11, 2025. Wayne Connell, The Post's chief HR officer, cited violations of the company's social media policies, harm to the organization's integrity, and potential endangerment of staff safety. The termination letter also referenced "documented performance concerns" that had previously been raised with Attiah.
According to the arbitration decision, Will Lewis, who was then the chief executive of the paper, had the final say in the decision to terminate Attiah. Lewis has since resigned from his position.
Attiah's legal team, comprised of lawyers from Democracy Defenders Action and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, argued that her social media commentary was within the scope of her work as an opinion columnist discussing political and gun violence in America. Norman Eisen, one of Attiah's lawyers, characterized the decision as a "thunderous victory for Karen Attiah, an award-winning journalist fired for doing her job, over Bezos’ Washington Post."