Karen Attiah, a Washington Post opinion columnist for 11 years, said the newspaper fired her last week over social‑media posts she wrote in the aftermath of the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Attiah said the paper told her the posts constituted “gross misconduct” that endangered colleagues’ safety — an allegation she rejected as false.
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters. Attiah said in a Substack post that she had been the newspaper’s last remaining Black full‑time opinion columnist and that her exit leaves the Post’s opinion pages without an African‑American voice.
Attiah said the posts at issue were written on Bluesky and included criticism of what she described as “excessive, false mourning” for Kirk, who was shot dead while speaking at a college event in Utah. She said she referenced Kirk directly in only one post, quoting a past comment attributed to him: “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”
In the days that followed the Utah shooting, Attiah said she also posted about gun violence and the public response to mass shootings, including the shooting of students at a Colorado high school that same day. She wrote that she condemned political violence and criticized ritualized responses — such as calls for “thoughts and prayers” — that she argued normalize gun violence and absolve perpetrators without leading to policy change.
Attiah wrote that her commentary drew support across platforms and little public backlash. She said the Washington Post nonetheless labeled her posts “unacceptable” and that the paper escalated the matter to a finding of gross misconduct. "They rushed to fire me without even a conversation," she wrote on Substack.
Attiah said she did not celebrate Kirk’s death and that her posts reflected long‑held views on gun policy and racial double standards in how the country responds to violence. "Nothing I said was new or false or disparaging — it is descriptive, and supported by data," she wrote.
Her departure follows a period of change and turnover at the Post’s opinion page. Attiah’s Substack post and other reporting noted a tense meeting last month with Adam O’Neal, the recently installed opinion editor who previously worked at The Economist and whose hiring has been part of an effort, led by owners, to reorient the section around ideas such as “free markets and personal liberties.” The Post has seen a wave of departures since last fall, when ownership intervened to block an editorial board endorsement of then‑Vice President Kamala Harris for president, an episode that prompted internal criticism and public discussion about the newsroom’s independence.
Attiah described her firing as part of a broader pattern she called a purge of Black voices from institutions, saying the timing and handling of her dismissal were both hasty and inconsistent with journalistic norms she said the paper espouses. She also posted a photo outside the Post’s offices holding a burning newspaper, saying the image reflected her reaction to events and the circumstances of her departure.
Newsroom policies governing reporters’ and columnists’ social‑media activity have been the subject of recurring debate in American journalism. Editors have at times disciplined writers for online commentary that they said could threaten colleagues’ safety or the outlet’s credibility; critics say such enforcement can chill political expression and disproportionately affect marginalized staff.
Attiah’s account of events has not been independently confirmed by the Washington Post. The paper’s stated policy on social media and workplace safety was cited by Attiah as the rationale offered for her dismissal, but the spokesperson’s refusal to comment leaves key details of the personnel decision unpublished. Attiah said she will pursue further public explanation of her dismissal and urged attention to what she described as the loss of a Black voice from the nation’s capital newspaper.