Washington Post Faces Backlash After Terminating Columnist Karen Attiah Over Her Comments on Charlie Kirk's Death

Karen Attiah, a longtime columnist at The Washington Post, has been dismissed from the newspaper after a series of social media posts she made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Attiah, who joined the Post in 2014 and later became a columnist in 2021, revealed on her Substack that she was abruptly terminated last week. She says she was informed that her commentary on the platform Bluesky amounted to "gross misconduct" and "endangered the safety of colleagues."

Attiah begins her Substack post, stating, "Last week, the Washington Post fired me. The reason? Speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America's apathy toward guns."

She disputes the claims made by the newspaper, arguing that she was not given any evidence of wrongdoing and was not offered the chance to have a conversation with editors before being fired. "I was dismissed without warning or dialogue," she said, insisting that her comments were aimed at broader issues of violence and racism in the United States rather than at Kirk personally.

Her posts came in the hours after Kirk was shot and killed in Utah, a killing that has dominated political coverage. In her commentary, Attiah criticized the United States' ritualized responses to mass shootings and political assassinations, saying the public conversation often defaults to predictable phrases such as "thoughts and prayers" and "this is not who we are," while systemic issues remain unaddressed.

"I wish I had hope for gun control and that I could believe 'political violence has no place in this country,'" Attiah wrote on Bluesky. "But we will do nothing to curb the availability of guns used to carry out said violence. The denial and empty rhetoric is learned helplessness - because the truth is.. America is sic, and there is no cure in sight."

"I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them," she wrote in her Substack post addressing her firing.

According to her account, she referenced Kirk once, quoting remarks about prominent Black women in which he claimed they lacked "brain processing power" to be taken seriously. Attiah argued that including his words was part of her effort to highlight the way racism intersects with political violence in the U.S..

Many criticized the Post for its decision to fire Attiah. The Washington Association of Black Journalists pointed out that she was the last Black full-time opinion columnist, and Taylor Lorenz, another former journalist for The Washington Post, called her "one of the most brilliant voices still left at the Post and what she posted was completely correct."

Lorenz left the newspaper last year after an internal investigation was conducted on her for calling Joe Biden a "war criminal" on a private Instagram story for his support of Israel's actions in Gaza. However, she claimed that the investigation wasn't the reason she left The Post and, like Attiah, began publishing on Substack.

Some have even taken to social media to announce that they have canceled their subscription to the newspaper.

However, some praised the Post for its swift response, citing Attiah's prior criticism of Israel and her criticism of former President Joe Biden.

The Post has not issued a detailed public statement, citing its policies on personnel matters, but reports indicate that editors invoked the company's "Policies and Standards" governing social media conduct. Attiah rejected this characterization, saying her posts did not target colleagues and did not call for violence, and she accused the paper of using safety concerns as a pretext to remove her.

The situation echoes that of Matthew Dowd, an MSNBC contributor who was fired for similar comments made on the TV network. Dowd stated, "Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions....You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place."

Since Kirk's assassination, the Trump administration has cracked down on those perceived to be "celebrating" his death. NBC reported that "terminations and disciplinary actions against employees have mounted across industries."

You can read her full statement regarding her firing here.