Karen Attiah Fired from Washington Post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Karen Attiah was ostensibly fired from the Post for misquoting a Charlie Kirk remark but I assume the post had been looking for the opportunity to let her go for some time.

Mixed feelings. She was courageous about some topics but also quite hateful towards those who didn’t share her agenda. She can start her own page but I don’t think she’ll ever have as big a platform in the U.S. again.

Whatever.
Lots of reasons to fire her or lay her off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When a journalist misquotes someone so blatantly and refuses to own up to her mistake (if it was a mistake and not intentional) she does not deserve the job as journalist.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/15/washington-post-karen-attiah-kirk-00564027


Some of Attiah’s social media posts condemned political violence but also highlighted Kirk’s divisive comments on Black women. In her only post directly mentioning Kirk, she quoted the Turning Point USA founder’s comments that Black women lack “brain processing power.”

“I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them,” Attiah said.

Here is a recording from Kirk's 2023 statements:

So where is the misquote?

Was he speaking about those specific women or Black women in general?

Does it matter? Why are you trying to tease this out. He said what he said. Can you not trust your own ears?

If he’s accusing some of the best and brightest among black woman, who clearly on a different level to most people, black, white, male, female of lacking brain power and stealing slots from white men; I can only imagine what he thinks about black women “in general”

The guy was bad news.

DP.

Since it is pretty obvious what he was insinuating, why not let everyone else reading about it from her come to the same conclusion? Why misquote him?

And I am saying this as someone who agrees with your assessment of what this man thinks of black women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charlie Kirk was a passoniate advocate for free speech for all white people, and no one who says differently should be tolerated in any job, especially one where they speak.

Nicely done!

[Anonymous]

“Democracy Dies In Darkness” isn’t a warning. It’s a mission statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charlie Kirk was a passoniate advocate for free speech for all white people, and no one who says differently should be tolerated in any job, especially one where they speak.

Nicely done!

Yes it's quite a talent to contradict yourself in such an Orwellian style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When a journalist misquotes someone so blatantly and refuses to own up to her mistake (if it was a mistake and not intentional) she does not deserve the job as journalist.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/15/washington-post-karen-attiah-kirk-00564027


Some of Attiah’s social media posts condemned political violence but also highlighted Kirk’s divisive comments on Black women. In her only post directly mentioning Kirk, she quoted the Turning Point USA founder’s comments that Black women lack “brain processing power.”

“I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them,” Attiah said.

Here is a recording from Kirk's 2023 statements:

So where is the misquote?

Was he speaking about those specific women or Black women in general?

Wow. I had never heard him speak on this issue before but now I understand why people say he was a racist, hateful person.

+1

Yeah. The sneering superiority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Attiah's reference to Kirk's statement is a paraphrase that omits key context, effectively presenting it as a direct claim he made about Black women's intelligence, when Kirk was instead critiquing what he saw as hypocritical standards in political rhetoric.

The full quote comes from a July 13, 2023, episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, where Kirk was discussing Democratic criticisms of white judicial nominees (like those under Trump) as "affirmative action" selections lacking merit. He argued this was acceptable when aimed at whites but would be deemed racist if reversed. Specifically, he said: "If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would be called every name in the book... You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You have to go steal a white person's brain." Here, the "brain processing power" line is Kirk mocking or illustrating the implication of the "affirmative action" label when applied to Black women, not a standalone assertion of his own view on their intelligence. He was highlighting what he viewed as a double standard, not endorsing the racist trope outright.

Attiah's Bluesky post summarized it as Kirk claiming "Black women such as Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and former Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee did not have the 'brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.'" This strips away the hypothetical framing, making it sound like a direct quote from Kirk.

In her Substack response after the firing, Attiah acknowledged this as "a misquote, one that a journalist should have fact-checked more rigorously," but defended it as capturing the "essence" of his rhetoric on racial hierarchies. Critics called it a deliberate distortion to inflame racial tensions post-assassination.

You must not have seen the same clip I did where he was jeering at Sheila Jackson Lee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attiah's reference to Kirk's statement is a paraphrase that omits key context, effectively presenting it as a direct claim he made about Black women's intelligence, when Kirk was instead critiquing what he saw as hypocritical standards in political rhetoric.

The full quote comes from a July 13, 2023, episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, where Kirk was discussing Democratic criticisms of white judicial nominees (like those under Trump) as "affirmative action" selections lacking merit. He argued this was acceptable when aimed at whites but would be deemed racist if reversed. Specifically, he said: "If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would be called every name in the book... You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You have to go steal a white person's brain." Here, the "brain processing power" line is Kirk mocking or illustrating the implication of the "affirmative action" label when applied to Black women, not a standalone assertion of his own view on their intelligence. He was highlighting what he viewed as a double standard, not endorsing the racist trope outright.

Attiah's Bluesky post summarized it as Kirk claiming "Black women such as Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and former Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee did not have the 'brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.'" This strips away the hypothetical framing, making it sound like a direct quote from Kirk.

In her Substack response after the firing, Attiah acknowledged this as "a misquote, one that a journalist should have fact-checked more rigorously," but defended it as capturing the "essence" of his rhetoric on racial hierarchies. Critics called it a deliberate distortion to inflame racial tensions post-assassination.

So it was an unintentional misquote? Seems like it was an interpretation that served the outcome she wanted.

No, it's more right wing lying.

People called Trump's White Guy DEI "Affirmative action" *because* Charlie Kirk and his gang were ruthless in calling every Black a Woman an incompetent diversity hire, *even when those people were actually white men*. His "hypothetical" is a actually reality, but he calls it "hypothetical" to pretend it's not.

Sorry, he *called* it hypothetical. He's not calling anything anymore.

Well put. I feel that Attiah’s “white women tears” rhetoric has outlived its moment and arguably a journalist needs to take more care with social media - although less so for a columnist. But she told no lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are right-wingers going to start reading the Post after Bezos drives all the sane people away? Who does Bezos think his propaganda is going to influence?

Maybe just normal people will start reading it again.

Nah, it's completely unreliable nowadays.

That article where it said that Trump's signature on the Epstein birthday letter was debateable was the final straw for me. I can handle a variety of viewpoints in the editorial pages. I can't handle blatant bullcrap in the news section.

I'm sticking to the FT from now on.

The Post is a slightly liberal version of Fox now. I stopped reading after Bezos refused to let it endorse Harris, I also stopped Amazon Prime (don’t miss it) and Whole Foods and Zappos. Bezos supports fascism. I will not patronize his businesses.
RIP WaPo. It was once a great newspaper.

[Anonymous]

Karen Attiah is my favorite writer at the Post. I deleted the app yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Democracy Dies In Darkness” isn’t a warning. It’s a mission statement.

She was a DEI hire.

lol, people mad because a community college dropout isn’t being whitewashed are accusing a Northwestern and Columbia grad of being a DEI hire.

Jahahaha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Democracy Dies In Darkness” isn’t a warning. It’s a mission statement.

She was a DEI hire.

Typical MAGA response whenever a woman or black person has a job they think rightfully belongs to white men. Thanks for the non sequitur, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attiah's reference to Kirk's statement is a paraphrase that omits key context, effectively presenting it as a direct claim he made about Black women's intelligence, when Kirk was instead critiquing what he saw as hypocritical standards in political rhetoric.

The full quote comes from a July 13, 2023, episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, where Kirk was discussing Democratic criticisms of white judicial nominees (like those under Trump) as "affirmative action" selections lacking merit. He argued this was acceptable when aimed at whites but would be deemed racist if reversed. Specifically, he said: "If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would be called every name in the book... You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You have to go steal a white person's brain." Here, the "brain processing power" line is Kirk mocking or illustrating the implication of the "affirmative action" label when applied to Black women, not a standalone assertion of his own view on their intelligence. He was highlighting what he viewed as a double standard, not endorsing the racist trope outright.

Attiah's Bluesky post summarized it as Kirk claiming "Black women such as Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and former Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee did not have the 'brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.'" This strips away the hypothetical framing, making it sound like a direct quote from Kirk.

In her Substack response after the firing, Attiah acknowledged this as "a misquote, one that a journalist should have fact-checked more rigorously," but defended it as capturing the "essence" of his rhetoric on racial hierarchies. Critics called it a deliberate distortion to inflame racial tensions post-assassination.

You must not have seen the same clip I did where he was jeering at Sheila Jackson Lee.

+1 I’ve heard the whole clip too. The “misquoted” argument is that Kirk was just talking about those four Black women. Not all Black women.

The ‘context’ is that he believed they were less intelligent and just couldn’t say it without being called racist, but now that they themselves claim affirmative action, he can now say that they’re less intelligent, and that view is limited to those four Black women in question. By the way, saying that affirmative action helped you get where you are is not an admission of lower intelligence.

If you’ve heard anything else he has to say about Black women, or even the rest of that clip, it’s clear this is entire disingenuous BS.

[Anonymous]

She has a history of making wildly inaccurate statements, and then when called out plays the victim card.

[Anonymous]

Bezos did her a favor - she's better off without him.