The Washington Post has fired national political correspondent Felicia Sonmez concluding a week of high-profile controversy at the publication. Sonmez’s departure from the Washington Post comes after a week of intra-WaPo squabbles that sparked intense debates about newsroom inequities and social media use, with numerous reporters publicly slamming each other.
According to The New York Times, Somnez was emailed a termination letter, citing “misconduct that includes insubordination, online maligning of coworkers, and breaking The Post’s rules on workplace collegiality and diversity.”
The letter stated, “We cannot allow you to continue to work as a journalist representing The Washington Post.” In a statement released Thursday, the Washington Post Guild declined to comment on Sonmez’s dismissal, but did warn that workers should only be fired for “good cause.”
“The Washington Post Guild’s objective is to secure equitable treatment and protection for all employees, as well as to uplift members as they battle to build a just and inclusive workplace where workers can thrive,” according to the guild’s leadership. “Our unit leadership is dedicated to ensuring that our contract is upheld and that workers are only reprimanded for legitimate reasons.” All members facing disciplinary action are represented and supported by us. We don’t comment on specific personnel matters.”
On Saturday, fellow Post reporter Jose A. Del Real publicly accused Sonmez of “repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague,” sparking a Twitter feud between the two that lasted until Del Real banned her on Sunday.
After the weekend incident, Executive Editor Sally Buzbee issued a cryptic message asking staffers to be courteous. However, tensions remained high on Monday, when WaPo video technician Breanna Muir reportedly replied-all to the memo to congratulate Sonmez and call out another coworker for referring to her as “Breanna Taylor” in a tweet. Muir said in her staff-wide message that the paper has a “toxic work environment.”
Buzbee issued yet another company-wide message on Tuesday, stressing that the daily “does not accept coworkers assaulting colleagues” and committing to enforce the publication’s social media and harassment standards. The email arrived just hours after Sonmez published a 30-tweet thread suggesting that editors have been favoring higher-profile writers and their social media accounts for years.
Meanwhile, Sonmez kept tweeting, pointing to critical remarks from Del Real (who had not reacted to Sonmez since Saturday) as a mockery of Buzbee’s claim to a “collegial workplace.”
On Thursday, Sonmez wrote a long thread on how “the writers who published synchronized tweets this week downplaying the Post’s workplace issues had a few things in common,” according to Sonmez. “They are among the stars who ‘get away with murder on social media,” she said, adding that they are “all white.”
The Post’s feuds with Sonmez aren’t new. She previously sued former Executive Editor Marty Baron, then-national editor and current managing editor Steven Ginsberg, and other top executives after the publication temporarily prohibited her from covering sexual assault stories when she revealed she was a survivor. Sonmez claimed that management’s action resulted in “economic loss, shame, embarrassment, mental and emotional pain.”
In March, a D.C. judge dismissed the claim, arguing that the Post did not act with a “discriminatory motive” in making its decision. Nonetheless, Sonmez has expressed her dissatisfaction with her former daily on the internet, claiming that it does not do enough to address newsroom disparities.
On Tuesday, Sonmez stated on Twitter, “Post employees have been imploring with management *for years* to take action to live up to their words when it comes to diversity, justice, and protecting their staff.” “The only thing that appears to genuinely bring about change is when people’s frustrations become public.”
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