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There’s a section in almost every media contract called a morality clause. It’s basically a provision that says an employee, as a representative of the outlet, must follow specific ethical standards.
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Regardless of whether this clause is written in a contract or not, the rule is universal in any organization that cares about its integrity and appearance.
Karen Attiah was fired last year for breaking the Washington Post’s company-wide social media policy around proper public conduct. Attiah, 40, wrote the following on the very day Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University:
“Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a White man that espoused violence is… not the same as violence,” she wrote on Bluesky.
“Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence,” she added. “If anything, the rush to coddle violent white men is self-protective – that we know they are not used to feeling vulnerable and mortal – and will react violently out of fear. And we will all suffer.”
The white man she was referring to was Kirk, who was shot dead on Sept. 10, 2025, while debating students on campus at an outdoor event. Kirk left behind two very young children and his wife, Erika. He was never one to espouse violence. In fact, he advocated through actions and words the exact opposite: openly debating those you disagree with most. Kirk jousted in a professional and civil manner with just about everyone, from antisemitic maniac Hasan Piker to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
Yet Attiah, offering no examples or evidence, said Kirk espoused hatred and violence, and did so before his body was even cold. She later defended her social media posts by arguing that they were part of her job of “commenting on our discourse on political violence.”
That’s fine, but to accuse a dead man of promoting political violence when he did no such thing is a far different situation.
So ask yourself this: If you ran the Washington Post, would you just allow this vicious lie to stand, or would you reprimand, even terminate, Attiah? One could make the argument that this was an emotional one-off and simply ask for a public apology instead.
But given that Attiah had also retweeted several posts supporting the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that resulted in the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, this was clearly a columnist who reflected poorly on the Washington Post brand and, therefore, was a public relations nightmare.
A firing was completely justified under what the paper called at the time “gross misconduct.”
“Karen’s social media feed yesterday and today is beyond the pale, completely unacceptable for someone associated with Opinions,” then-opinions editor Adam O’Neal wrote at the time.
But on Monday, an arbitrator named Sarah Miller Espinosa ruled that the Washington Post lacked “good and sufficient cause” to fire Attiah. This decision is comical.
“The Washington Post failed to establish the grievance engaged in gross misconduct,” Espinosa concluded.
Attiah didn’t hesitate to do a victory lap while doubling down on her disgusting and dishonest comments about Kirk.
“The Washington Post fired me last year for speaking the truth after Charlie Kirk’s killing. I fought back,” she wrote in announcing the decision. “I’m happy to announce: I won my case against the Washington Post. They have been ordered to reinstate me immediately.”
In the eyes of many in legacy media, Attiah will be celebrated for speaking truth to power and standing up for free speech. A book deal is likely already in the works.
But how exactly will the Washington Post handle this? Clearly, management sees her as a liability. Does this mean she’ll be able to violate the company’s own social media standards and get away with it? Can she just write whatever she wants in her columns, facts and evidence be damned? The precedent here is horrible.
What Attiah’s reinstatement also represents is a continued permission slip for violence in our current 2020s assassination culture. Here we have Kirk, on campus for a benign debate event in Utah, shot in the throat and killed in broad daylight, and Attiah basically says he had it coming to him based on a lie.
We saw celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s murder that were nothing short of horrifying. A Chicago teacher is on video pointing a mock gun at her throat and laughing through the whole thing. Despite the video going viral and being seen and condemned by millions, she wasn’t reprimanded in any capacity. And to add insult to injury, podcaster Jennifer Welch even went so far as to urge Democrat lawmakers to embrace celebrating Kirk’s murder.
“So listen up, Democratic establishment. You can either jump on board with this s***, or we’re coming after you the same way we come after MAGA.” Period,” Welch said shortly after his death.
These are sick people. Obviously. And it’s a pattern on the Left.
Take Luigi Mangione, for example. This is a person who has pleaded guilty to stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan and ultimately killing him by shooting him in the back shortly after sunrise in Manhattan because he was upset with the healthcare system in the United States. Mangione is seen on video killing Thompson, a husband and father of two boys, but was lionized anyway. In the end, Mangione’s GoFundMe page has amassed more than $1.5 million in donations since the assassination. And there are hundreds of videos on social media of young women vowing to marry Luigi if he ever gets out of prison.
This is the state of America in 2026. A Washington Post columnist openly fabricates a narrative about Charlie Kirk by saying he espoused hatred and violence, which was anything but the case. She gets fired and deservedly so, until an arbitrator decides she was wrongly terminated and therefore must be hired back.
We’re living in Crazy Town.
And as long as there’s no accountability for lies and deception and recklessness, as we witnessed with Karen Attiah, this kind of dangerous rhetoric will only continue.
