Felicia Sonmez, a reporter on the nationwide workers at The Washington Submit whose criticism of colleagues and the newspaper on social media in current days drew widespread consideration, was dismissed by the paper Thursday, in keeping with a termination letter.
Washington
Felicia Sonmez terminated by The Washington Post after Twitter dispute
Reached by cellphone, Sonmez stated, “I’ve no remark at the moment.”
Sonmez, who labored for The Submit from 2010 to 2013 earlier than rejoining the newspaper in 2018, was scheduled to play a key function Thursday night time in reporting on the Home choose committee’s televised listening to on the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, in keeping with a Submit editor concerned with the protection.
However in a Thursday afternoon termination letter first reported by the New York Instances and seen by a Submit reporter, The Submit instructed Sonmez that she was fired “for misconduct that features insubordination, maligning your co-workers on-line and violating The Submit’s requirements on office collegiality and inclusivity.”
Sonmez on Friday used her Twitter account to name consideration to a colleague, David Weigel, for retweeting a sexist joke.
“Incredible to work at a information outlet the place retweets like this are allowed!” Sonmez tweeted in response.
She additionally complained about Weigel’s retweet on an inside message board.
Weigel apologized for the retweet and deleted it from his account. The Submit subsequently suspended him with out pay for a month for violating its social media insurance policies. (The Submit didn’t affirm Weigel’s suspension, citing the privateness utilized to personnel choices.) Within the ensuing days, Sonmez continued to make use of her Twitter account to give attention to the incident, retweeting criticism of Weigel and contending that Submit administration enforces social media insurance policies inequitably.
Over the weekend, Jose A. Del Actual, one other Submit reporter, requested Sonmez to stop her criticisms, tweeting, “Felicia, all of us mess up now and again. Participating in repeated and focused public harassment of a colleague is neither an excellent look neither is it notably efficient. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying.”
Del Actual later tweeted that his back-and-forth with Sonmez prompted a “barrage of on-line abuse directed by one individual however carried out by an keen mob.”
Sonmez then posted screenshots of Del Actual’s tweets and wrote: “It’s exhausting for me to know why The Washington Submit hasn’t completed something about these tweets.”
On account of the feuding, Buzbee on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of warning the workers in an e mail in opposition to “attacking colleagues both head to head or on-line.”
“Respect for others is crucial to any civil society, together with our newsroom,” Buzbee wrote, referring to The Submit’s social media coverage, which requires staff to be “constructive and collegial.” Buzbee additionally directed staffers to speak instantly with co-workers to lift issues.
On Thursday morning, in a Twitter thread criticizing The Submit’s newsroom tradition, Sonmez commented a few group of politics reporters who had tweeted complimentary issues in regards to the firm. “They’re among the many ‘stars’ who ‘get away with homicide’ on social media,” she wrote.
Sonmez also tweeted: “I care deeply about my colleagues, and I would like this establishment to offer assist for all staff. Proper now, The Submit is a spot the place many people worry our trauma shall be used in opposition to us, based mostly on the corporate’s previous actions.”
In July 2021, Sonmez filed a lawsuit in opposition to the newspaper and several other present and former high editors, alleging that she had been discriminated and retaliated in opposition to when editors twice barred her from overlaying tales associated to sexual misconduct after she spoke publicly about being a sufferer of sexual assault.
Her grievance partly centered on her declare that editors had unfairly chastised her for tweets about sexual misconduct. D.C. Superior Court docket Decide Anthony C. Epstein dismissed her lawsuit in March.
Sonmez was briefly positioned on administrative depart in January 2020 after tweeting within the hours after NBA star Kobe Bryant’s demise in regards to the prison expenses of rape, later dropped, he had confronted years earlier. The Washington Submit Guild, the union that represents Submit staffers, issued a press release on the time expressing “alarm and dismay” over the choice.
On Thursday night, the Guild declined to touch upon Sonmez’s termination or every other personnel points, past saying that it represents and offers assist “to all members going through self-discipline.”
“The Washington Submit Guild’s mission is to make sure equal remedy and safety for all staff and uplift members as they struggle to create a simply and inclusive office through which staff can thrive,” the assertion stated.