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The Nationwide Labor Relations Board is looking for reinstatement and again pay for former Washington Publish reporter Felicia Sonmez, who was fired in 2022 after attacking colleagues and fiercely criticizing the paper on social media.
Sonmez was terminated for insubordination after she continued condemning different Publish reporters on-line regardless of a number of memos issued by then-executive editor Sally Buzbee calling for civility. The Washington-Baltimore Information Guild filed an unfair labor apply cost over Sonmez’s firing. The NLRB, Guild and Washington Publish every filed briefs on Friday.
“To place it bluntly, Respondent simply obtained sick of Sonmez’s Twitter exercise criticizing the Publish’s and its insurance policies, in addition to its implementation—or lack thereof—of these insurance policies. In response, Respondent determined to bypass its progressive self-discipline system and hearth her due to these criticisms,” NLRB prosecutors stated.
WAPO’S FELICIA SONMEZ TORCHES ‘WHITE’ COLLEAGUES FOR ‘DOWNPLAYING’ WORKPLACE DRAMA WITH ‘SYNCHRONIZED TWEETS’
Nationwide Labor Relations Board prosecutors are looking for reinstatement and again pay for former Washington Publish reporter Felicia Sonmez. (Getty Photos)
When asking for the grievance to be dismissed, the Publish argued that permitting Sonmez to return to the corporate “would trigger unmanageable and unacceptable disruption,” and referred to the actions that resulted in her dismissal as a “seven-day tirade.”
“As a result of Sonmez lacks the ‘journalistic integrity’ essential to work within the Publish’s newsroom, she shouldn’t be reinstated,” the Publish argued.
The Guild believes the Publish violated her rights below the Nationwide Labor Relations Act.
The saga started in June 2022 when Sonmez went after then-colleague Dave Weigel for retweeting a joke: “Each woman is bi. You simply have to determine if it is polar or sexual.”
Sonmez was not amused and publicly criticized her colleague, additionally attacking her office by reacting, “Implausible to work at a information outlet the place retweets like this are allowed!”
Sonmez then launched a days-long public tirade in opposition to the Publish and plenty of of her colleagues.
WASHINGTON POST TORN TO SHREDS FOR SUSPENDING REPORTER DAVE WEIGEL FOR A RETWEET: ‘COMPLETELY INSANE’
Former Washington Publish reporters Felicia Sonmez and David Weigel. (Eric McCandless by way of Getty Photos)
Weigel was positioned on a one-month unpaid suspension regardless of having eliminated the retweet and issuing an apology. He left the Publish to hitch the start-up website Semafor later that 12 months.
Nonetheless, Sonmez’s tweetstorms berating co-workers continued, and she or he started receiving public pushback from Publish colleagues, who Sonmez then attacked publicly.
She repeatedly ripped the paper’s social media coverage all through the ordeal. Sonmez even took purpose at “White” reporters who expressed solidarity with the paper amid infighting.
“I don’t know who the colleagues anonymously disparaging me in media studies are. However I do know that the reporters who issued synchronized tweets this week downplaying the Publish’s office points have a couple of issues in widespread with one another,” Sonmez wrote throughout a prolonged Twitter thread, saying they “are all White.”
WASHINGTON POST REPORTERS CONTINUE AIRING THEIR GRIEVANCES WITH ONE ANOTHER ON TWITTER
Felicia Sonmez’s “seven-day tirade” in opposition to the Washington Publish started with this 2022 tweet. (Twitter)
Regardless of Buzbee urging staffers to deal with one another respectfully, following per week of fixed viral warfare between Publish colleagues, Sonmez was terminated. The Washington Publish unveiled an up to date social media coverage after the ordeal.
NLRB prosecutors are looking for reinstatement and again pay for Sonmez, who now works for Blue Ridge Public Radio. Sonmez declined remark.
“The choice is now as much as the decide,” Sonmez wrote on X.
The Washington Publish didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Fox Information Digital.
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Fox Information Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
Brian Flood is a media editor/reporter for FOX Information Digital. Story ideas may be despatched to brian.flood@fox.com and on Twitter: @briansflood.
