Prominent opinion columnist and editor Karen Attiah has been fired from The Washington Post over a series of posts she wrote following the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Attiah, 39, said she was sacked last week over the ‘unacceptable social media posts’ in the wake of the conservative commentator’s assassination in Utah.
One 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.’
Another of the posts, on social media platform Bluesky, said: ‘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.’
The journalist revealed her firing in a lengthy post on Substack on Monday, which she titled ‘The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.’
‘The Post accused my measured Bluesky posts of being “unacceptable,” “gross misconduct” and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues — charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false,’ Attiah wrote.
‘They 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 rigor the Post claims to uphold.’
Karen Attiah has been fired from The Washington Post over a series of posts she wrote following the murder of Charlie Kirk
The 31-year-old conservative activist was debating with students at Utah Valley University on Wednesday when he was shot in the neck
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot on Wednesday during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in Orem. He was 31.
A 22-year-old Utah native named Tyler Robinson has been arrested for the killing. He’s due in court on Tuesday.
In her essay, the journalist said the reason for her firing was ‘speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.’
‘As a columnist, I used my voice to defend freedom and democracy, challenge power and reflect on culture and politics with honesty and conviction,’ Attiah wrote.
‘Now, I am the one being silenced – for doing my job.’
Attiah went on to say that she took to social media after Kirk’s murder to express ‘sadness and fear for America’ and condemn the country’s acceptance of political violence.
She noted that her most shared post on Bluesky following Kirk’s death read: ‘For everyone saying political violence has no place in this country… Remember two Democratic legislators were shot in Minnesota just this year. And America shrugged and moved on.’
Attiah is pictured with billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, in 2019
Explaining the post, Attiah wrote on Substack: ‘I pointed to the familiar pattern of America shrugging off gun deaths, and giving compassion for white men who commit and espouse political violence. This cycle has been documented for years. Nothing I said was new or false or disparaging— it is descriptive, and supported by data.’
Attiah said she only directly referenced Kirk once, when she shared one of his quotes: ‘Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.’
‘Washington D.C. no longer has a paper that reflects the people it serves,’ the columnist said.
‘What happened to me is 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.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Attiah for comment on this story.
Attiah rose to prominence as the hiring editor for Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in Istanbul by the Saudi regime in 2018.
She is no stranger to controversy over her social media posts.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot on Wednesday during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in Orem. He was 31
Attiah was previously in hot water in 2021 after saying in a since-deleted post that white women were ‘lucky’ that black people are ‘just calling them Karens and not calling for revenge.’
Before deleting the post, she doubled down on the remark in the comments section, saying: ‘I’m just saying. Be happy we are calling for equality. And not actual revenge
