CNN
Former Washington Post editor Marty Baron and CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Wednesday debated the paper’s January 2020 suspension of national political reporter Felicia Sonmez, due at least in part to a tweet she sent about an hour after the death of NBA star Kobe Bryant.
Sonmez had posted a link to a 2016 Daily Beast article detailing the 2003 rape allegation against the longtime Los Angeles Laker. Sonmez was then put on administrative leave. In June 2022, she was fired for “misconduct that includes insubordination, maligning your co-workers online and violating The Post’s standards on workplace collegiality and inclusivity,” according to a termination letter viewed by The New York Times.
“I can’t think of anything more journalistic—in the sense that we are the ones that are supposed to bring up the most uncomfortable truths to the public—than that tweet,” Tapper told Baron. “And second of all, I bet there were millions of rape survivors and sexual assault survivors that saw her tweet, and thought, ‘Thank God somebody out there is speaking for me.’”