Karen Attiah, a former Washington Post columnist, is contesting her termination after the newspaper said her social media post about Charlie Kirk’s death violated its policies and endangered staff. An arbitration hearing held Thursday could lead to a decision
Karen Attiah has been a columnist at the Washington Post for more than a decade, building a public voice on race, culture, gender and human rights. But her fight today doesn’t start in a newsroom—it starts with one post.
Attiah was fired after she posted on social media following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September 2025. In that post, she said Kirk was “a white man that espoused violence” and criticized what she described as America’s double standards relating to political violence.
In a termination letter, the Washington Post said her social media post “violate The Post’s social media policies, harm the integrity of our organization, and potentially endanger the physical safety of our staff.”
Attiah is now challenging the firing through a grievance filed by the Washington Post Guild and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. The filing argues her termination violated press freedom. Speaking ahead of an arbitration hearing on Thursday. Attiah said she viewed the punishment as retaliation for doing work she believed she was hired to do.
“We’re just living in a climate right now where there are so many attacks on press freedom, attacks on our institution that I think for me personally it just felt right,” Attiah told WTOP. “I was just doing my job and to be punished for just doing my job. I had to fight back.”
She said she sees the firing as part of a broader shift in the media landscape that includes mass layoffs, eliminations of news departments and attacks on the press. “It’s an extremely pressure-cooker time for journalism and journalists,” she said.
The arbitration stretched through arguments from both The Washington Post and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. Attiah was called to testify about the Bluesky post after Charlie Kirk’s death that led to her firing.
Amos Laor. the general counsel of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. told WTOP that Attiah argued she was “eventually fired for doing exactly what she was hired to do. what she was trained to do. what she was evaluated in. what The Post evaluated for and The Post praised her for doing writing opinions. writing smart and sharp social media posts with commentary on the pressing issues of the time. ” including race and political violence.
Attiah and Laor both said they are confident in their chances before a neutral arbitrator.
“I made a very strong, solid case that there was no cause for termination,” Attiah said.
Laor said the decision will be made by a neutral arbitrator within two to three months. He described the hearing as an opportunity that had been delayed.
“It was an opportunity for Attiah to finally present her story because she was 11 years (as a) columnist of The Post,” Laor said. “This was, I think, an important moment for Attiah to finally get the opportunity to present her side and to argue against her wrongful termination.”
Attiah said she is also approaching the case as a test of how journalists are expected to speak—especially when the subject is violence.
Her work at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2025 included reporting and editing on major human rights cases. She worked on stories involving Jamal Khashoggi. the Saudi journalist she recruited to the Post in 2017. who was killed in 2018 by agents of the Saudi government. Attiah also edited his last article for the newspaper.
She wrote about the Nigerian government bringing back girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram. She and fellow columnist David Ignatius were also awarded the George Polk Award in 2019 for their commentary on Khashoggi’s killing.
Attiah’s career is shaped by questions about whose voices get heard. Although she hails from Texas, her family background has roots in West Africa—her mother is Ghanaian-Nigerian and her father was Ghanaian. She said her heritage contributed to her curiosity of the world.
“I’m curious how other people live, other cultures live. So I brought that to my journalism. … To be able to bring voices from other backgrounds, other cultures, other countries,” Attiah said. “It’s foundational to me as a journalist.”
As she sees it, the dispute over her firing is also entangled with questions about diversity in journalism. She described herself as the last full-time Black opinion columnist for the paper and said she believes diversity matters because it helps ensure people understand what’s happening in diverse communities and how that shapes news coverage.
“It just enriches the journalism, brings more readers, brings more money,” Attiah said. “This is a key part of why I wanted to enter journalism … to help empower other voices.”
She said she hopes her fight—against her termination and against what she describes as attacks on diversity and DEI—encourages journalists to push back.
“I think for me it’s to demonstrate not only fighting back individually, but the importance of organization, solidarity, collective action and just that our voices matter,” Attiah said. “They matter, they’re worth fighting for.”
WTOP reached out to The Washington Post for comment on Attiah’s firing and arbitration hearing.
Karen Attiah Washington Post arbitration hearing Charlie Kirk Bluesky press freedom Washington Post Guild Washington-Baltimore News Guild diversity DEI