The Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmes, who has recently been at the center of discussions about the organization’s social media policies and newsroom culture, was fired Thursday. She is on the condition of anonymity for discussing personnel issues.
According to one, Mr. Sonmez was fired by email Thursday afternoon. In her e-mail notice of retirement read by The New York Times, Sonmes was told that her post would end her employment immediately. Collegiality and inclusiveness of the workplace. “
An email from Wayne Connell, Chief Human Resources Officer of the post, also stated that Mr. Sonmez’s “public attempt to question the motives of co-journalist” had damaged the post’s reputation.
“We can’t allow you to continue working as a journalist on behalf of the Washington Post,” the letter said.
According to the screenshots viewed by The Times, Sonmez’s internal Slack account was disabled by Thursday afternoon. Mr. Sonmes contacted him by phone and said a statement would be issued by the Washington Post Newspaper Association.
The guild statement said it would not comment on individual personnel issues. “We represent and provide support to all members facing discipline,” he said.The news that Mr. Sonmez is no longer hired by the post Previously reported According to The Daily Beast.
Sonmes, a national political reporter, Was sued Last year, the newspaper and several top editors said she discriminated against her by forbidden to take up stories about sexual assault after publicly identifying her as a victim of assault.The case is Rejected In March, the judge said the post attributed the ban to media concerns that she was not the victim of sexual assault, but that her public statement looked like a prejudice. Sonmes’ lawyer at the time said she was going to appeal.
Last week she was at the center of a big fire over the culture of the newsroom. On Friday, paper political reporter Dave Weiger retweeted a sexist joke that implied that women were either bisexual or bipolar. Sonmes then tweeted, “It’s great to work for a news agency that allows such retweets!”
Weigel apologized for the tweet. On Monday, he was unpaid and suspended by The Post for a month, according to someone with knowledge of the matter.
Later, Sonmez admitted that Weigel’s tweet was “unacceptable,” but José A. del Real, a reporter who advised Sonmez that he “brought the Internet to attack” Weigel. I fell into a disagreement on Twitter.Real later sent several tweets about “a series of relentless attacks” against him, and Sonmez question Why did the post do nothing to rebuke him for his tweets about her, including what she said “repeatedly harassed and targeted her colleagues.”
The next day, Sonmez wrote a lot of posts on Twitter about the newsroom culture of the post. What she said was that the way social media policies were applied to different reporters was uneven. From time to time, she played a joust with her fellow journalists on Twitter posts.
According to the post’s two current employees, many in the newsroom thanked Sonmez for supporting him through the proceedings and defending the victims of sexual abuse, but she tweeted about the post. As I continued, my emotions began to change this week.
People said he felt that Mr. Sonmez was hurting the facility and did not agree to use the public forum to criticize his colleagues.
Others had problems with her response to an email from national editor Matea Gold, who urged people to take care of their mental health after being shot in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, Texas last month.
After reading a difficult story and telling the editor that she needed to take a walk, Sonmez said she was once punished and all replied to the newsroom.
Sonmes protected himself in another tweet Thursday morning before being fired. “I am very concerned about my colleagues and want this institution to support all of our employees. Currently, the post is based on the company’s past behavior and many of us are us. This is where the trauma is afraid to be used against us. “
fracas has become like a leadership test Sally Buzbee, I became the editor-in-chief of The Post last June. Last week, Mr. Busby wrote two notes in the newsroom asking his colleagues not to attack each other on social media.
“The newsroom’s social media policy points out the need for collegiality in particular,” Buzbee wrote in an email Tuesday.
Benjamin Marine Report that contributed.
