Felicia Sonmez, a reporter for The Washington Post who has been at the center of a debate in recent days over the organization’s social media policies and editorial culture, was fired on Thursday, according to three people familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity. discussion of personnel issues.
According to one person, Ms. Sonmez was fired by email on Thursday afternoon. In a letter of termination from an email seen by The New York Times, Ms. Sonmez was told that The Post was shutting down immediately, “for misconduct that includes disobedience, slandering your colleagues online and violating The Post’s standards for collegiality and inclusion in the workplace. “
An email from Wayne Connell, Post’s chief human resources director, also said that “Ms Sonmez’s public attempts to question your journalists’ motives” undermined The Post’s reputation.
“We cannot allow you to continue working as a journalist for The Washington Post,” the letter said.
Ms. Sonmez’s internal Slack account was disabled until Thursday afternoon, according to a screenshot by The Times. Asked by phone, Ms. Sonmez said a statement would come from the Washington Post Guild.
A statement from the guild said it would not comment on individual personnel issues. “We represent and provide support to all members facing discipline,” it said.
Ms. Sonmez, a national political reporter, sued the newspaper and several senior editors last year, saying she had been discriminated against by banning her from covering stories of sexual violence after she publicly identified herself as the victim of an attack. The case was dropped in March, and Ms. Sonmez’s lawyer at the time said she planned to appeal.
Over the past week, she has been at the center of a public firestorm over editorial culture. On Friday, Dave Weigel, a political reporter for the newspaper, retweeted a sexist joke that suggests women are either bisexual or bipolar. Ms. Sonmez then tweeted, “It’s fantastic to work in a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!”
Mr. Weigel apologized for the tweet. On Monday, he was removed from The Post for a month without pay, according to someone familiar with the matter.
Ms Sonmez then disagreed on Twitter with Jose A. Del Real, a reporter who acknowledged Mr Weigel’s tweet as “unacceptable” but warned Ms Sonmez of “joining the internet to attack”. Mr. Weigel. Mr Real later sent several tweets about a “relentless series of attacks” on him, and Ms Sonmez wondered why The Post had done nothing to criticize him for his tweets about her, including one that said that she participated in “repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague”.
Updated
June 9, 2022, 6:05 PM ET
In the following days, Ms. Sonmez wrote numerous Twitter posts about the culture of the newsroom in The Post, and what she said was the uneven way in which his social media policy was applied to various reporters. She sometimes competes with fellow journalists from The Post on Twitter.
Many newsrooms supported Ms. Sonmez during her trial and thanked her for her advocacy for victims of sexual violence, according to two current Post officials, but sentiment began to change this week as she continued to tweet about The Post.
Some believe Ms. Sonmez is hurting the institution and disagree with her use of public forums to criticize colleagues, people said.
Others have challenged her response to an email from national editor Matea Gold urging people to take care of their mental health following last month’s shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uwalde, Texas.
Ms. Sonmez sent a reply to everyone to the editorial office that she had been punished once after telling an editor that she had to go for a walk after reading a difficult story.
Ms. Sonmez defended herself in another set of tweets on Thursday morning before being fired, saying: “I deeply care about my colleagues and I want this institution to provide support for all employees. The Post is currently a place where many of us fear that our trauma will be used against us, based on the company’s past actions. “
The clashes became something of a test of leadership for Sally Busby, who became executive editor of The Post last June. Ms. Busby wrote two notes to the editorial office last week asking colleagues not to attack each other on social media.
“Social media policy in the editorial office focuses specifically on the need for collegiality,” Ms. Busby wrote in an email Tuesday.
Benjamin Mullin contributed to the report.
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