Overview
- This week a private arbitrator concluded the Washington Post did not have “good and sufficient cause” to fire Karen Attiah and ordered her reinstated with full back pay and lost benefits.
- Attiah was dismissed in September 2025 after posting reactions on Bluesky to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a move the paper said violated its social-media policy and posed safety and integrity concerns.
- The ruling found the Post failed to prove Attiah engaged in gross misconduct during a June arbitration hearing that included testimony from Attiah, then-opinion editors, and the paper’s human-resources official.
- Attiah, who was the paper’s last Black full-time opinion columnist at the time, said she was willing to return and framed the decision as a vindication of opinion journalism and free expression.
- The case underscores broader tensions over newsroom social-media rules, recent editorial shifts in the Post’s opinion section under new leadership, and the binding power of arbitration under the paper’s union contract.