Opinion columnist Karen Attiah has been absolved by an independent arbitrator in the wake of her termination by The Washington Post. She had been dismissed last year for provocative social media posts following the assassination of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk.
In a post on September 10, 2025, Attiah commented on the social media platform Bluesky.
”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,” she wrote.
Another passage read in part:
“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.”
In a communique to the Post’s Human Relations (HR) officer, opinion editor Adam O’Neal stated that “…Karen’s social media feed yesterday and today is beyond the pale, completely unacceptable for someone associated with Oopinions.”
In turn, Wayne Connell, the chief HR officer, responded.
“The poor judgment exhibited by your public comments regarding Charlie Kirk arises against the backdrop of documented performance concerns, which have been raised with you,” he stated.
Concurrently, Attiah had been teaching a course at her alma mater, Columbia University, titled “Race, Media, and International Affairs.” In addition to her termination by the Post, the university canceled the class.
An 11-year veteran at the Post, Attiah was noteworthy for recruiting controversial journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was allegedly killed at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2, 2018. His body has never been recovered.
Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and has cut about 300 newsroom employees this year, perhaps 45 percent of whom were Black. On August 27, Sarah Miller Espinosa, J.D., who had been retained as an arbitrator in June, ruled that Attiah had been terminated unfairly. She, in turn, ordered that the plaintiff was entitled to past earnings and benefits, and that the Post was obligated to reinstate her.
