Reports indicate The Washington Post has fired controversial political reporter Felicia Sonmez, who engaged in a Twitter war complaining about her colleagues and the media outlet for the last week.
Sonmez started the war by tweeting her objections about an off-color joke retweeted by a male reporter. He took down the joke and apologized, but the WaPo suspended him for a month without pay.
Other reporters tried to get Sonmez to stop tweeting about the incident, but the conflict escalated despite pleas from management for the newsroom to stop. Sonmez was unmoved, and kept up her barrage, broadening her attacks on colleagues who issued tweets of support for the WaPo organization.
That conduct resulted in her allegedly receiving a termination notice via email on Thursday.
The New York Times reported it had viewed a copy of the email. Sonmez was terminated “effective immediately” and told the firing was “for misconduct that includes insubordination, maligning your co-workers online, and violating The Post’s standards on workplace collegiality and inclusivity.”
The email reportedly came from Wayne Connell, the Post’s chief human resources officer. He also said Sonmez’s “public attempts to question the motives of your co-journalists” undermined The Post’s reputation.
Sonmez previously sued the Washington Post and several top editors last year. She claimed discrimination because she was not permitted to cover stories about sexual assault after she had publicly identified herself as a victim of assault.
The lawsuit was dismissed in March. Sonmez’s lawyer said at the time that they would appeal.
Sonmez has not publicly commented yet on her apparent dismissal.
