Washington Article fires Felicia Sonmez amid community feud with colleagues

(VFAB) — The Washington Put up on Thursday fired Felicia Sonmez, the reporter who has been extraordinarily essential of her colleagues and the newspaper’s management around the final a number of days, two men and women common with the issue told VFAB.

The Post’s termination recognize, a duplicate of which was witnessed by VFAB, stated Sonmez was fired for “misconduct that involves insubordination, maligning your coworkers on the net and violating The Post’s standards on place of work collegiality and inclusivity.”

“We can not let you to keep on to operate as a journalist representing The Washington Submit,” the letter concluded.

Arrived at by cell phone, Sonmez declined to remark. The Washington Put up also declined to comment.

The Each day Beast was first to report Sonmez’s exit.

Sonmez has been at the middle of an intra-Write-up struggle that started off past Friday when reporter David Weigel retweeted a sexist joke.  He deleted the tweet, but not before Sonmez captured a screen shot and confronted Weigel the two on Twitter and on the company’s internal Slack communication.

By Monday, the Post had suspended Weigel for a single thirty day period devoid of shell out and admonished him in both general public and non-public statements.

The fallout has thrown the paper’s newsroom into disarray.

Sonmez, who addresses nationwide politics,  has been outspoken about the past week about troubles connected to inequity in the newsroom, like public comments very essential of the Post’s management, such as Govt Editor Sally Buzbee.

At instances, some of her colleagues went on Twitter to plead with Sonmez to cease attacking the Submit on social media.

Jose A. Del True, a reporter at The Put up, responded on Twitter Saturday to Sonmez’s initial tweet. Del Real reported Weigel’s tweet was “terrible and unacceptable.” “But,” he extra, “rallying the web to assault him for a slip-up he created does not truly solve just about anything. We all mess up in some way or a different. There is these kinds of a thing as complicated with compassion.”

Sonmez responded, indicating that “calling out sexism isn’t ‘cruelty,'” but some thing that is “absolutely necessary.”

Buzbee attempted twice to quell the general public infighting by means of statements, like a stern memo issued to employees on Tuesday. In that memo, Buzbee, “in the strongest of phrases,” outlined policies that all staffers are predicted to observe.

“We do not tolerate colleagues attacking colleagues both face to confront or on the web,” Buzbee wrote. “Respect for others is important to any civil culture, which include our newsroom.”

Just several hours soon after Buzbee issued her memo, Sonmez tweeted a monitor grab showing she was still blocked on Twitter by Del Serious. And she retweeted one more user mocking some of her colleagues who had joined collectively to send out tweets expressing pleasure about working at The Post.

Reporter Lisa Rein tweeted at Sonmez that night, writing, “Please end.”

Sonmez replied and asked, “Do you have any notion of the torrent of abuse I’m experiencing appropriate now?”

In her Thursday thread, Sonmez argued that the colleagues of hers who publicly defended the Write-up this 7 days are White and among the most extremely paid out in the newsroom.

“It is a terrific place of work *for them*,” she wrote.

Sonmez’s previous disputes with her companies incorporate a lawsuit she submitted previous 12 months right after she was briefly banned from masking tales involving sexual harassment or misconduct for the reason that she had publicly discovered herself as a sexual assault target. The fit was not long ago dismissed she designs to attractiveness.

She was also suspended in 2020 for tweets essential of Kobe Bryant quickly after his demise. The controlling editor at the time said Sonmez’s responses “displayed bad judgment that undermined the perform of her colleagues.”

In a statement this week, The Washington Post Guild reported its mission is “to make certain equivalent treatment method and safety for all staff members and uplift members as they battle to develop a just and inclusive office in which workers can thrive.”