The Washington Post suspended a reporter after she tweeted about the 2003 rape case involving NBA superstar Kobe Bryant following his death on Sunday.
Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with his 13-year old daughter, Gianna, and seven others on Sunday morning. Amid an outpouring of emotional support on social media, Felicia Sonmez, a national political reporter for the Washington Post, tweeted a link to a story about his 2003 rape settlement.
The reporter has been placed on administrative leave pending a review of her tweeting habits.
“National political reporter Felicia Sonmez was placed on administrative leave while the Post reviews whether tweets about the death of Kobe Bryant violated the Post newsroom’s social media policy,” Tracy Grant, the newspaper’s managing editor, told the Washington Examiner. “The tweets displayed poor judgment that undermined the work of her colleagues.”
After receiving condemnation and ridicule for posting the story about the alleged rape shortly after the acclaimed Laker’s death, Sonmez defended herself on social media, saying that “10,000 people (literally) … commented and emailed me with abuse and death threats.”
As part of her rebuttal against those sending her threatening messages, she posted a screenshot of her email inbox that listed the senders’ full names. It is not clear whether tweeting this screenshot played a role in her suspension.
She argued that “any public figure is worth remembering in their totality even if that public figure is beloved and that totally unsettling.” She went on to address those who sent her threatening messages, explaining that it “speaks volumes about the pressure people come under to stay silent in these cases.”
Sonmez did not respond to a request for comment.
