Arbitrator orders Washington Post to reinstate fired columnist

An independent arbitrator ordered The Washington Post to rehire a columnist it fired last year over controversial social media posts following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

A judge ruled Karen Attiah, an opinion writer at the Post, had been wrongfully terminated over the social media posts and that the outlet failed to prove they amounted to “gross misconduct.”

The Post, the judge ruled, “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Attiah and had violated the news organization’s collective bargaining agreement. As part of the ruling, the company was ordered to reinstate the writer and compensate her with back pay from the time she was fired.

Last fall, after the killing of Kirk, Attiah published a series of online posts in which she suggested she would not mourn the death of Kirk , which the Post argued hurt the company’s reputation and integrity.

“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct,” Attiah said in a statement issued through her attorney. “After spending over a decade of my career at the Post as an editor and an opinion columnist focusing on race, gender and global human rights, I’m relieved to finally have that record set straight.”

A spokesperson for the company said it respects the arbitration process and declined to comment further.

The Post has gone through an overhaul of its newsroom and opinion section in recent months, as its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos looks to retool its business model.

Some Post readers have canceled their subscriptions and accused Bezos of attempting to shore up relations with President Trump.