Attiah announced she was fired after editors deemed her social media commentary "unacceptable", including a post made following the assassin
Washington PostΒ columnistΒ Karen AttiahΒ announced she was fired last week after editors deemed her social media commentary, including a post made following theΒ assassinationΒ of conservative activistΒ Charlie Kirk, as βunacceptable.β
In a statementΒ posted to Substack on Monday, Attiah said she was accused of βgross misconductβ and of βendangering the physical safety of colleagues.β She called the allegations βcharges without evidence, which I reject completely as false.β
Attiah argued her posts were measured and focused, not on Kirk but on Americaβs growing tolerance for political violence.
βMy most widely shared thread was not even about activist Charlie Kirk, who was horribly murdered, but about the political assassinations of Minnesota lawmakerΒ Melissa Hortman, her husband and her dog,β she wrote.
βNothing I said was new or false or disparaging β it is descriptive, and supported by data,β she added.
In her statement, Attiah said her only direct reference to Kirk was to cite his βown wordsβ that Black women lacked βthe brain processing power to be taken seriouslyβ and needed to βsteal a white personβs slot.β
The dismissal comes amid a wave of firings and suspensions in the media for comments made about Kirk after his killing.
MSNBC parted ways with analystΒ Matthew Dowd, who described the Turning Point USA founder as a βdivisiveβ figure who pushed βhate speechβ on-air in coverage just after the killing.
