On Thursday, The Washington Post fired Felicia Sonmez, the paper’s political reporter, after she publicly criticized her employers and colleagues for nearly one week straight. I’m surprised they put up with her lunacy for that long. She made an even bigger joke out of the news outlet where truth always goes to die in their darkness.
Sonmez started her drama at the company last week when she took to Twitter to call out fellow reporter David Weigel for retweeting an alleged sexist tweet. He wasn’t even the one who tweeted it. He retweeted it and she still lost her [rhymes with hit].
Weigel retweeted a joke, saying, “Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”
Sonmez shared a screenshot of Weigel’s retweet and said, “Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!”
First of all, the joke is not about women, per se. Only a leftist lunatic would think so. It’s about the joke teller’s status in life. It’s a self-demeaning joke that he can’t hold on to a relationship and every person who dates can relate to it. Weigel retweeting it was his way of saying he relates.
Sonmez acted up, probably because she wanted attention. The retweet was sent using Weigel’s personal account, not a WaPo account. He didn’t address it to her, so she is the one who attacked him.
The WaPo went so far as to suspend Weigel, without pay for one month because of his retweet, even though he made a public apology. He didn’t include the WaPo in his tweet, but they suspended him because of a whiny little petulant brat named Felicia Sonmez.
“I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke,” Weigel said. “I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.” He didn’t cause any harm. He was attacked by a loon who wanted attention.
A WaPo reporter, Jose Del Real, criticized Sonmez for publicly berating one of their own colleagues.
“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.”
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.
— Jose A. Del Real (@jdelreal) June 4, 2022
Sonmez then pontificated over her decision to call Weigel out, saying it was “important that all those who saw Dave’s tweet also see Washington Post reporters standing up for our newspaper’s value.” What value? That the WaPo won’t allow a retweet of a self-demeaning joke because some leftist women might find it offensive? Give me a break.
Del Real deactivated his Twitter account for a short while following Sonmez’s mess. He reactivated it, and immediately blocked her from being able to view his tweets. Smart move.
Because of Sonmez’s childish nonsense, Sally Buzbee, WaPo’s executive editor, sent an internal staff memo out telling reporters to “treat each other with respect and kindness both in the newsroom and online.” She might as well have reminded everybody to hold hands while riding the crazy train and don’t lose their lunch money while she was at it.
Well, Sonmez said screw that to the memo and went on trashing Del Real in a lengthy Twitter meltdown on Tuesday. It got so bad that longtime WaPo reporter Lisa Rein stepped into it and told Sonmez to “please stop.” OUCH!
Buzbee allegedly sent out another internal memo on Tuesday, telling the staff, “We do not tolerate colleagues attacking colleagues either face to face or online.”
Dumb stuff like this is what can harm a company, its reputation, and that leads to lower revenues. The Washington Post only has a good reputation among people who also watch CNN and MSNBC and believe what they read in the paper, so if they lose those zombies, they’re in real trouble.
Kris Coratti, WaPo’s chief spokesman, told CNN on the day that the outlet fired Sonmez, the infighting “is being addressed directly with the individuals involved.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter’s coffee boy Oliver Darcy tweeted out the news.
New: WaPo spox @kriscoratti issues statement on the latest infighting at the paper, which occurred after @SallyBuzbee's stern memo: "While we have not commented publicly, make no mistake, this is being addressed directly with the individuals involved." https://t.co/zgicpuqfvR
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 8, 2022
Feeling she didn’t quite do enough to get herself fired, Sonmez went on a long tirade about the WaPo having “Other colleagues” being “punished for their own trauma.”
I stand by what I wrote in that email. In 2018, I was punished after I told my editors I needed to take a walk around the block after reading a difficult story.
Other colleagues have been punished for their trauma far more recently, but their stories aren’t mine to tell. 1/ https://t.co/uLXvL2fVmA
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 9, 2022
She also went after her “white” colleagues for “disparaging” her in the media.
“I don’t know who the colleagues anonymously disparaging me in media reports are. But I do know that the reporters who issued synchronized tweets this week downplaying the Post’s workplace issues have a few things in common with each other,” Sonmez tweeted.
Sounds like she’s still looking for those stolen strawberries. Yikes!
“They are all white – They are among the highest-paid employees in the newsroom, making double and even triple what some other National desk reporters are making, particularly journalists of color – They are among the ‘stars’ who ‘get away with murder’ on social media,” she added.
Sonmez sued her former employer for discrimination in 2021, but a D.C. judge dismissed the lawsuit this year because she failed to show a “discriminatory motive.”
She just sounds like a troublemaker in the workplace. Maybe she should learn to code.
Rich is a conservative, syndicated opinion writer and owner of MAGA-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty, and faith.
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