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An independent arbitrator on Monday ordered The Washington Post to reinstate columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired last year over social media posts she made following the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was shot and killed last September during an appearance on a Utah college campus, triggering widespread grief among conservatives and prompting President Donald Trump to threaten a crackdown on the "radical left."
Following the shooting, Attiah wrote on social media that she refused to engage in "performative mourning" for Kirk, while also resharing past racist remarks the activist had made about Black women
She was later fired, with the Post accusing her of "gross misconduct" and of violating its social media policies, according to the paper's own reporting.
An arbitrator ordered the Post on Monday to rehire Attiah and compensate her with back pay, writing in the decision that the Post "did not have good and sufficient cause" for her dismissal.
Attiah wrote on X that she was "happy" with the decision, saying she had been forced out for "speaking the truth." The Post said it respected the arbitration process but declined to comment further.
Attiah had worked at the publication for 11 years and noted that she was the "last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post" at the time of her firing.
In her posts about Kirk, she shared his racist claims that Black women lack "brain processing power" and therefore require help from diversity programs. Her other posts criticized the Trump administration's framing of Kirk as a martyr for the conservative cause.
Since 2013, when billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos purchased the Post, the newspaper's opinion section has shifted its tone to focus more on "personal liberties and free markets," according to internal mandates.
Attiah gained recognition as the editor for journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national with U.S. residency who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
U.S. intelligence and a United Nations investigation later concluded that Riyadh bore responsibility for his killing. Attiah had recruited Khashoggi to write about the Arab world, and published his posthumous last column, which called for free expression in the region. She has advocated for human rights and free expression in her work ever since.
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