Washington Post columnist says she was abruptly fired after Kirk post

Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah revealed that she was abruptly fired from her role after 11 years last week, following posts she made detailing Charlie Kirk’s comments on topics such as race and gun control.

The 39-year-old writer expressed in a Substack post that the Washington Post said her posts, published on Bluesky, were "unacceptable" and a form of "gross misconduct". She also said the publication accused her of endangering the physical safety of colleagues, something she said they did not provide any evidence for.

Attiah’s post on Kirk came after his killing last week, and the widespread circulation of many of his speeches and remarks praising US President Donald Trump, as well as his anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiments.

Kirk regularly championed Israel and echoed sentiments calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US.

In her Substack post, Attiah said the Washington Post had "rushed to fire me without even a conversation. This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigour the Post claims to uphold".

Attiah’s Bluseky post highlighted a remark from Kirk made in 2023, where he said many prominent Black women "do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken seriously".

The quote was the only one that made a direct reference to Kirk.

In another post, she said that the US, in her opinion, "accepts and worships gun violence".

One of her posts read: "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."

After her dismissal, she said her firing was "part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media – a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful – and tragic".

Attiah also raised alarm over the fact that she was "the last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post," after many of their opinion columnists left due to owner Jeff Bezos changing the direction of the editorial board.

The New Arab reached out to The Washington Post for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

According to various reports, there has been a concerted effort by prominent right-wing public figures to target people who have criticised Kirk in the wake of his killing.

Days earlier, MSNBC fired political analyst Matthew Dowd after he described Kirk as a "divisive" figure who took part in "hate speech".

Following her dismissal, Attiah has doubled down on her comments and asserted that she will not be phased, and will continue doing her job as a journalist.