Washington Post Fires Reporter Felicia Sonmez

The Washington Post has fired reporter Felicia Sonmez for insubordination after she publicly claimed that female staffers are mistreated at the newspaper in a lengthy Twitter thread, according to Politico.

Last Friday, Sonmez released a series of Twitter threads alleging that the Post grants preferential treatment to experienced, white journalists. She also quoted a sexist joke that fellow Post reporter Dave Weigel retweeted with the comment, "Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!" Weigel later apologized for the retweet and was suspended by the newspaper for one month.

Earlier this week, the Post's Executive Editor Sally Buzbee issued a memo to newsroom staff telling them to refrain from "attacking colleagues either face to face or online." Politico reports that another reporter at the newspaper, Jose A. Del Real, claimed that Sonmez was attempting to bully Weigel, to which Sonmez replied: "When women stand up for themselves, some people respond with even more vitriol."

She continued to criticize the Post's leadership in Twitter threads, claiming that the newspaper has failed to protect reporters from harassment, either from inside the company or outside, and has not established an inclusive culture.

The Post's leadership wrote in a termination letter to Sonmez, which was obtained by The New York Times, that her behavior constituted "insubordination, maligning your co-workers online and violating The Post's standards on workplace collegiality and inclusivity."

A spokesperson for the newspaper told Forbes, "we do not discuss personnel matters."

Sonmez filed a lawsuit last year against the Post claiming that the newspaper's leadership discriminated against her by preventing her from covering stories about sexual assault after she revealed that she herself was a survivor of sexual assault. This lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year.

In 2020, Sonmez was suspended after she tweeted about the rape allegations made against Kobe Bryant just after his death.

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