WaPo Columnist Fired Over Kirk Posts Has Her Job Back

A former Washington Post opinion writer has won her job back after a private arbitrator ruled the paper wrongly fired her over social media comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk's killing. The New York Times reports that arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa ordered the Post to reinstate Karen Attiah and pay her back wages, finding the company lacked "good and sufficient cause" to terminate her and had violated its labor agreement. Espinosa concluded the paper "failed to establish the grievant engaged in gross misconduct."

Attiah, who wrote on Bluesky that declining to publicly mourn "a white man that espoused violence" was not itself violence, argued that those posts fell squarely within her duties as an opinion columnist. The Post had said her comments damaged the outlet's integrity and broke its civility rules; a spokesperson now says it respects the arbitration process but offered no further response. Attiah, represented in the case by Democracy Defenders Action and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, said that "This decision confirms what we've said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion writer, and this was wrongful termination," she said. She added that she was "willing to go back" to work for "one of the world's most storied newspapers."