By Chris Iorfida
Copyright cbc
Washington Post editor and columnist Karen Attiah said Monday she had been fired after more than a decade at the paper over comments made since Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting — a dismissal being criticized by the newspaper’s union and free speech organizations.
Attiah alleged on her Substack page she was fired for “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.”
“I did my journalistic duty, reminding people that despite President [Donald] Trump’s partisan rushes to judgment, no suspect or motive had been identified in the killing of Charlie Kirk — exercising restraint even as I condemned hatred and violence,” she wrote.
PEN America, a press freedom group, warned in a statement that firings like Attiah’s “risk creating a chilling effect.”
The Washington Post Guild, which represents employees at the newspaper, said in a statement it “stands with” Attiah and “will continue to support her and defend her rights.”
“The Washington Post wrongly fired Opinions columnist Karen Attiah over her social media posts. The Post not only flagrantly disregarded standard disciplinary processes, it also undermined its own mandate to be a champion of free speech. The right to speak freely is the ultimate personal liberty and the foundation of Karen’s 11-year career at The Post.”
The Washington Post, in response to an inquiry from USA Today, said it wouldn’t discuss personnel matters.
On Tuesday, Attiah posted on social media a copy of the termination letter she said she received, which cited a mandate that employee social media postings not “disparage people based on their race, gender or other protected characteristics,” specifically citing separate posts she made on Bluesky that referenced “white men.”
“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,” Attiah said in one of the posts.
The letter also referenced “documented performance concerns, which have been raised with you.”
Highlighted past Kirk quote
On her Substack page, Attiah highlighted some of her recent social media posts after Kirk’s killing. In one, she suggested that “white America is not going to do what it needs to do to get rid of the guns in the country.”
Attiah also posted on X an older quote she attributed to Kirk that read: “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”
MAGA activists have criticized Attiah and others for misquoting Kirk and taking the comments out of context. Kirk was not discussing Black women in general, but was referring to four specific women: Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; former first lady Michelle Obama; liberal pundit Joy Reid; and Sheila Jackson Lee, a congresswoman from Texas who has since died. His suggestion was that by admitting they had benefited from affirmative action, they were essentially confessing to not being able to reach their posts through merit.
A father of two and a Christian conservative, Kirk was a hero to many Trump Republicans for his fiery warnings about the dangers of Democrats and ability to organize young voters. But Kirk also was a provocateur and supporter of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, who left a long record of partisan quips that enraged many on the left.
He once suggested he would be nervous boarding a plane if he saw a Black pilot and, along with fellow right-wing activist Christopher Rufo, has often suggested that persons of colour in high-profile positions were the beneficiaries of “D.E.I.,” the acronym diversity, equity and inclusion. Some business ethic professionals have said using the term as an epithet can be damaging, as it dehumanizes individuals, and implies all others hired are necessarily qualified.
Attiah said she was committed to free speech and highlighted it can have grave consequences, pointing to her time as an editor when Jamal Khashoggi contributed as a columnist. Khashoggi, who had written several Post columns critical of the Saudi regime, was murdered in Turkey in 2018 in what a United Nations probe concluded was a planned killing that originated in Saudi Arabia.
Vance, others encourage campaign
Attiah is among a number of professionals across industries, including Canadians, who have faced dismissal or censure in the wake of Kirk’s shooting death on Sept. 10.
Kirk’s friends in the Trump administration and the MAGA movement have in the past week excoriated those criticizing the Turning Point USA leader’s past comments, even as they have celebrated his commitment to free speech.
Vice-President JD Vance on Monday called on the public to turn in anyone who says distasteful things about the assassination of his friend and political ally.
“When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out,” Vance urged listeners on the slain activist’s podcast on Monday. “And hell, call their employer.”
Vance in the past has been a critic of the “cancel culture” of conservatives, and defended a young governmental aide accused of making racist comments earlier this year.
Alluding to free speech concerns, Vance said: “You have the crazies on the far left that say, ‘Oh, [White House official] Stephen Miller and JD Vance, they’re going to go after constitutionally protected speech.”‘
But he added: “No, no, no! We’re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” — a reference to non-governmental organizations.
Adam Goldstein, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The Associated Press that “the government involvement in this does inch this closer to looking like McCarthyism,” referring to the 1950s campaign to root out communists that led to false allegations and ruined careers.
Media figures, professors targeted
MSNBC last week said contributor Matthew Dowd was no longer with the cable news network after he commented on live TV on the day of Kirk’s shooting that “hateful words” can lead to “hateful actions.” MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler called the comments “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.”
Dowd later apologized for his remarks, and the former Republican aide in George W. Bush’s administration stressed he made the comments just minutes after it was learned that there was a shooting at a Kirk-hosted event, but before it was known that Kirk was the target.
Progressive podcast host Wajahat Ali was among those pointing out what they say has been a double standard in the past week. Fox News host Jesse Watters has not faced any consequence for suggesting the need to “avenge Charlie’s death,” he noted, while Brian Kilmeade, also of Fox News, suggested some homeless people with mental illness should be subjected to involuntary lethal injection or even killed — a comment made in the wake of the stabbing death of a 23-year-old on a bus in Charlotte. (Kilmeade has since apologized.)
Democratic officials have roundly condemned Kirk’s murder and have pointed out that Republicans, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, appeared to mock the June killings of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.
As well, Donald Trump Jr. and others appeared to celebrate the 2022 beating of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their San Francisco home, with the president’s son and others baselessly insinuating the attacker and Paul Pelosi had a personal relationship. The Canada-born attacker later testified in court his motives centred on the government and Democratic officials like Nancy Pelosi.
In the wake of Kirk’s death, the consequences have extended beyond pundits and media figures.
Republican-controlled states such as Florida, Oklahoma and Texas have launched investigations of teachers and even students accused of inappropriate statements. The U.S. military, in an unusual request, has invited members of the public to report those who “celebrate or mock” the killing of Kirk, including those who never served in the military.
“According to Kirk, empathy is a made-up new-age term, so keep the jokes coming. It’s what he would have wanted,” read one post on X that Melvin Villaver Jr., a Clemson University music professor, re-posted the day of the killing, according to a screenshot circulated by college Republicans demanding his firing.
Some people targeted have been victims of mistaken identity.
A school district in rural Elkhorn, Wis., reported receiving more than 800 messages after one conservative influencer mistakenly identified an associate principal at a local elementary school as celebrating Kirk’s death.
