Washington Post Columnist Reinstated, Awarded Back Pay After Firing Over Charlie Kirk Posts

Reinstated Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah celebrated her arbitration win against the newspaper, which was ordered to give her a year's worth of back pay. Attiah shared a video of herself dancing to a Rihanna song on X, formerly Twitter, stating, "POV: Channeling my inner Rihanna because I won my case against the @washingtonpost — and they owe me a year’s worth of back pay."

An arbitrator ruled in August that the Post "did not have good and sufficient cause" to fire Attiah and had violated her labor agreement. Attiah told Fox News Digital that she is "happy I have been vindicated and ordered reinstated with back pay." She added, "But in the meantime, I just wanted to put on a pretty gold dress, vibe to Rihanna’s music and eat cake! I wanted to be as loud about the win as possible so that other journalists will not be afraid to speak the truth."

Attiah's termination followed her social media posts about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination. In one post, she 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." In another, she stated, "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."

Critics accused Attiah of misattributing a quote to Kirk, claiming he said, "Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a White person's slot." However, Kirk made similar remarks on an episode of "The Charlie Kirk Show" in July 2023, stating, "If we would have said three weeks ago [...] that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama, and Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative-action picks, we would have been called racist. But now they're comin' out and they're saying it for us! They're comin' out, and they're saying, 'I'm only here because of affirmative action.' Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a White person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously."

Attiah initially faced backlash for her comments and was later fired by the Post, which cited her posts as "unacceptable" and "gross misconduct." She filed a legal challenge against the newspaper last fall, and both parties entered arbitration in June. A spokesperson for The Washington Post stated that the paper respects the arbitration process but declined further comment. It remains unclear whether Attiah will formally return to work at the publication.