The Media 2070 Project Denounces the Washington Post's Firing of Columnist Karen Attiah

WASHINGTON — On Monday, Karen Attiah, a Washington Post opinion columnist, wrote on her Substack that the paper had fired her over her social-media posts on gun violence and race following the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last week in Utah.

Attiah wrote she was fired for “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.”

Attiah noted she was “the last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post, in one of the nation’s most diverse regions,” adding that her firing “is part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media — a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful — and tragic.”

Senior Media 2070 Director Anshantia Oso and Senior Advisor Joseph Torres said:

“We denounce the firing of Karen Attiah, which represents the latest example of how powerful white-owned and -controlled media companies — in this case, The Washington Post — have openly embraced policies and practices during Trump’s second term that explicitly seek to re-segregate our society.

“The Black community, Black media advocates and Black journalists have fought over the past 60 years to integrate powerful and dominant white-owned media institutions to ensure our nation’s local and national media outlets better reflect the diverse audiences receiving critical news and information.

“Black media and Black journalists have a history of using their reporting to combat authoritarianism and white-supremacist policies. The removal of vital voices like Karen Attiah’s — whose reporting helps our communities understand the political context we’re in — is a dangerous and deliberate act of erasure by media owners. This results in media coverage that traffics in disinformation and misinformation that harm Black communities and other communities of color.

“Our nation’s powerful institutions — as well as government policies — remain committed to upholding racial hierarchies in our society. And now, media companies are helping to fuel our nation’s constitutional collapse, which has empowered an authoritarian administration intent on dismantling our nation’s civil-rights laws and infrastructure.

“The media capitulation to Trump, which Attiah’s firing represents, will result in more biased news coverage that undermines equal-protection rights of Black communities and other communities of color. As it is, too many newsrooms malign our communities as unlawful and criminal — a portrayal that legitimizes the government’s racist policies and actions.

“Our country has yet to ensure we have a media system that supports the goals of realizing a multiracial democracy. Our nation’s failures to redress the history of anti-Blackness in our media institutions and media policies are significant factors for the current moment we live in.”

The Media 2070 project believes that a robust media system — unafraid to speak truth to power and address harmful rhetoric — is necessary for the health and well-being of Black communities.