Felicia Sonmez, a reporter for The Washington Post who has been at the center of a debate over the organization’s social media policies and editorial culture in recent days, was fired on Thursday, according to three knowledgeable people who spoke on condition of anonymity over human resources. to discuss.
According to one of the persons, Ms. Sonmez was fired by email on Thursday afternoon. In an emailed termination letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times, Ms. Sonmez told The Post that her employment was terminated with immediate effect, “for misconduct that includes insubordination, defaming your colleagues online and violating The Post’s standards of collegiality and inclusivity in the workplace.”
The email from Wayne Connell, the Post’s chief human resources officer, also said that Ms. Sonmez’s “public attempts to question the motives of your co-journalists” undermined The Post’s reputation.
“We cannot allow you to continue working as a journalist representing The Washington Post,” the letter reads.
Mrs. Sonmez was deactivated Thursday afternoon, according to a screenshot viewed by The Times. Ms. Sonmez was reached by phone and said a statement would be made by The Washington Post Newspaper Guild.
The guild’s statement said it would not comment on individual personnel matters. “We represent and provide support to all members who face discipline,” it said. The news that Mrs. Sonmez was no longer employed by The Post was previously reported by The Daily Beast.
Ms. Sonmez, a national political reporter, last year sued the newspaper and several top editors for discriminating against her by banning her from publishing stories of sexual assault after she publicly identified herself as a victim of assault. The case was dropped in March, with the judge noting that The Post had attributed the reporting bans not to her being a victim of sexual assault, but to concerns that her public statements had created an appearance of bias. The then attorney for Mrs. Sonmez said she plans to appeal.
In the past week, she has been at the center of a public storm over editorial culture. On Friday, Dave Weigel, a political reporter at the paper, retweeted a sexist joke suggesting that women were bisexual or bipolar. Ms Sonmez then tweeted: “Great to work on a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!”
Mr Weigel apologized for the tweet. On Monday, he was suspended by The Post for a month unpaid, according to an expert.
Ms. Sonmez then got into a Twitter altercation with Jose A. Del Real, a reporter who acknowledged Mr. Weigel was “unacceptable”, but Mrs. Sonmez admonished for “setting up the internet to attack” Mr. weigel. Mr Real later sent several tweets about a “relentless series of attacks” against him, and Ms Sonmez interrogated why The Post hadn’t done anything to reprimand him for his tweets about her, including one saying she’d been involved in “repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague.”
In the days that followed, Mrs. Sonmez posted numerous Twitter posts about editorial culture at The Post and what she said was the uneven way social media policies were applied to different reporters. Sometimes she played with fellow journalists at The Post on Twitter.
Many in the editorial team supported Ms. Sonmez during her lawsuit and were grateful to her for her advocacy for sexual abuse victims, according to two current Post employees, but sentiment began to change this week as she continued to tweet about The Post.
Some felt Ms Sonmez hurt the institution and disagreed with her use of public forums to criticize colleagues, people said.
Others disagreed with her response to an email from national editor, Matea Gold, urging people to take care of their mental health in the wake of the shootings last month in Buffalo, NY, and Uvalde, Texas.
Ms. Sonmez sent a reply-all to the newsroom saying she was once punished for telling an editor to take a walk after reading a difficult story.
Ms Sonmez defended herself in another series of tweets on Thursday morning, before she was fired, saying: “I care deeply about my colleagues and I want this institution to support all employees. Right now, the Post is a place many of us fear that our trauma will be used against us, based on the company’s past actions.”
The spat amounted to a leadership test of sorts for Sally Buzbee, who became editor-in-chief of The Post last June. Ms. Buzbee wrote two memos to the editors last week asking colleagues not to attack each other on social media.
“The editors’ social media policy specifically points to the need for collegiality,” Ms Buzbee wrote in an email on Tuesday.
Benjamin Mullin reporting contributed.
