After retweeting a sexist joke, Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel was put on unpaid suspension. The joke came from the Youtuber Cam Harless who said, "Every woman is bi. You just have to figure out if it's polar or sexual."
Weigel's colleague Felicia Sonmez called him out shortly after by replying, "Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!" Weigel's tweet was later removed. To which he tweeted, "I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke. I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm."
Another Washington Post reporter, Jose Del Real, decided to get involved in the conflict and chastised Sonmez for her tweet, which led to some public workplace controversy.
In a now-deleted tweet Del Real said, "Felicia, we all mess up from time to time. Engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague is neither a good look nor is it particularly effective. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying. I don’t think this is appropriate."
He also had a follow-up deleted tweet that said, "I hope you reconsider the cruelty you regularly unleash against colleagues." Which seems to be stemming from a long history of disputes between the group of reporters.
Del Real then deactivated his Twitter account then reactivated it with another tweet that said, "In hopes of de-escalating, I temporarily deactivated my account, amid a barrage of online abuse directed by one person but carried out by an eager mob. The one-sided attacks continued even after I stopped engaging."
Sonmez's only reply was to de-escalate the situation by saying, "To anyone reading this and wondering whether it’s wrong to speak out—it’s not. It matters greatly and makes more of a difference than you know, to people you may never know."
In an attempt, the quash the beef between coworkers the Executive Editor of the Bezo's owned news outlet, Sally Buzbee, put out a statement saying, "We are a collegial and creative newsroom doing an astonishing amount of important and groundbreaking journalism. One of the great strengths of our newsroom is our collaborative spirit. The Washington Post is committed to an inclusive and respectful environment, free of harassment, discrimination, or bias of any sort. When issues arise, please raise them with the leadership of human resources and we will address them promptly and firmly."
However, in 2020 Felicia Sonmez was briefly suspended from the Washington Post for mentioning a rape allegation made against NBA star Kobe Bryant after he and his daughter died in a helicopter accident.
Like Del Real said, everyone makes mistakes from time to time. From what the reporters were saying to each other, this dispute goes deeper than one sexist tweet, and because of the internet, we all get to be involved in matters that don't involve us! But is anyone really surprised that a news outlet owned by Jeff Bezos has all this infighting?
Comments