Arbitrator Orders Washington Post to Rehire Columnist Fired Over Kirk Comments

A private arbitrator ordered The Washington Post to rehire opinion columnist Karen Attiah with full back pay and benefits, ruling the newspaper lacked good and sufficient cause to fire her last year.

Attiah was terminated on September 11, 2025, one day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The Post's termination letter cited two of Attiah’s posts on Bluesky, stating they violated the paper’s social media policies, harmed its integrity, and potentially endangered staff. In one post, Attiah wrote that refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence was not the same as violence.

In another, she wrote that part of what makes America violent is the expectation that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence. Arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa found Attiah’s posts were ill-timed given the fraught atmosphere but did not constitute gross misconduct. Attiah, who worked at the Post for 11 years, filed a grievance against the paper, arguing she was wrongfully terminated and a victim of a broader purge of Black voices.

She told The New York Times she would be willing to go back to the Post. The Post spokesperson stated the paper respects the arbitration process, which is generally binding under its labor agreement. The arbitration decision also revealed the Post had planned to reassign Attiah from Opinion Columnist to Letters Editor, with unchanged pay and benefits. Democracy Defenders Fund, which represented Attiah, called the ruling a landmark moment for press freedom.