Washington Post fires reporter Felicia Somnez who objected to misogynistic tweets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that this dude’s friends seem to have found this thread and don’t get that BOTH reporters look dumb here, and THE POST looks dumb. It’s embarrassing that she was using Twitter to go scorched earth; it’s embarrassing that he was using his professional account to tweet dumb “women be crazy” day jokes in 2022; it’s frustrating and depressing that ALL of “elite media twitter” can’t see how their use of twitter undermines their work and creates these meaningless echo chambers.
She had the firing coming and it’s good the Post is rid of her. But all the other things here are still true too.

+1 This.

+2

Twitter is problematic for journalists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, wow, I knew her back in the day.

What was she like?

She was chill and laid back from what I recall. Down to earth. Not the calculating or slick type like others who ended up in the political/Washington/media scene.

She does not come across as chill or laid back on Twitter, that's for sure. I wonder what happened - or if that's just her Twitter persona.

I have not spoken to her for many years. But I don't think she ever intended to go into journalism/media when she was in college or in her early 20s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She acted crazy on Twitter. Coworkers shouldn’t be blasted online like that.

Um, you mean like the guy who wrote that all women are bipolar or bisexual? That guy who still has a job at the WaPo?

He got reprimanded, suspended, didn’t he? Did you want him to get fired for a stupid tweet?

You mean like she got fired for pointing out he made a stupid (misogynistic to be more accurate) tweet that insulted half of his coworkers? Collegiality my butt.

He literally didn’t make the tweet. And it was a bad dad joke that most sane people didn’t even care about.

Ok Wiegel. He shared the tweet. If I had done that in a public forum, my place of work would have fired him. And the dads I know don't talk about women in that way.

It's Weigel, not Wiegel. You work at a different place. He's not a dad.

The guy apologized, instantly, and was suspended without pay for a month. He is a good reporter who is usually goofy but not offensive on Twitter. I really don't see the possible justification for punishing him worse than this, over such a dumb thing.

I don't get why this poster is calling this a dad joke. Dad jokes are puns or corny humor. They're not insulting to half the population. Dads have daughters too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that this dude’s friends seem to have found this thread and don’t get that BOTH reporters look dumb here, and THE POST looks dumb. It’s embarrassing that she was using Twitter to go scorched earth; it’s embarrassing that he was using his professional account to tweet dumb “women be crazy” day jokes in 2022; it’s frustrating and depressing that ALL of “elite media twitter” can’t see how their use of twitter undermines their work and creates these meaningless echo chambers.
She had the firing coming and it’s good the Post is rid of her. But all the other things here are still true too.

+1 This.

+2

Twitter is problematic for journalists.

Twitter just reflects your personality. See Donald Trump. The reporter tweeted what he felt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She acted crazy on Twitter. Coworkers shouldn’t be blasted online like that.

Um, you mean like the guy who wrote that all women are bipolar or bisexual? That guy who still has a job at the WaPo?

He got reprimanded, suspended, didn’t he? Did you want him to get fired for a stupid tweet?

You mean like she got fired for pointing out he made a stupid (misogynistic to be more accurate) tweet that insulted half of his coworkers? Collegiality my butt.

He literally didn’t make the tweet. And it was a bad dad joke that most sane people didn’t even care about.

Ok Wiegel. He shared the tweet. If I had done that in a public forum, my place of work would have fired him. And the dads I know don't talk about women in that way.

It's Weigel, not Wiegel. You work at a different place. He's not a dad.

The guy apologized, instantly, and was suspended without pay for a month. He is a good reporter who is usually goofy but not offensive on Twitter. I really don't see the possible justification for punishing him worse than this, over such a dumb thing.

I don't get why this poster is calling this a dad joke. Dad jokes are puns or corny humor. They're not insulting to half the population. Dads have daughters too.

I think maybe we are just going to disagree over how offensive the tweet was. I thought it was stupid, and offensive, but not burn it all down bad. I thought Weigel responded appropriately with his apology - and that a month's suspension without pay seemed extreme, but ok. You clearly see it as much worse than I did, and than many other people did. But there's a lot of you, too, so I have to acknowledge that as well.

I don't know. This whole thing just seemed to spiral out of control in a pretty crazy way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good. She is toxic. All this over a weird and bad retweeted joke. She’s looking to get paid and that’s it. I didn’t care for her after her shitty tweet 10 mins after Kobe died.

You mean that guy who raped the woman who worked at a hotel?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL. Anyone watching this unfold knew she was aiming to get fired so she could bring another lawsuit against the post. And she’d directly made far more insulting remarks about men than the other reporter who got suspended for merely re-Tweeting a joke that wasn’t nearly as malicious.

I don't know. Tweeting about all women being either "bisexual or bipolar" seems pretty hostile to me. I would be pissed to work with someone like that too, and think it's good she called him out.

My understanding is that he deleted it and apologized after she called him out on it. Had she dropped it at that point it would have been fine, but I believe she continued on a Twitter rampage. I think people forget they don’t have to put every thought of theirs on line.

I’m not that PP, but a reporter who feels free to retweet something that misogynist probably has a very long appalling history behind him. An apology probably doesn’t come close to covering what’s really going on.

This. I'm disgusted by the Post and am thinking of cancelling my subscription. I want to support the press but the misogyny that is prevalent in every single institution is infuriating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She acted crazy on Twitter. Coworkers shouldn’t be blasted online like that.

Um, you mean like the guy who wrote that all women are bipolar or bisexual? That guy who still has a job at the WaPo?

He got reprimanded, suspended, didn’t he? Did you want him to get fired for a stupid tweet?

You mean like she got fired for pointing out he made a stupid (misogynistic to be more accurate) tweet that insulted half of his coworkers? Collegiality my butt.

He literally didn’t make the tweet. And it was a bad dad joke that most sane people didn’t even care about.

Ok Wiegel. He shared the tweet. If I had done that in a public forum, my place of work would have fired him. And the dads I know don't talk about women in that way.

It's Weigel, not Wiegel. You work at a different place. He's not a dad.

The guy apologized, instantly, and was suspended without pay for a month. He is a good reporter who is usually goofy but not offensive on Twitter. I really don't see the possible justification for punishing him worse than this, over such a dumb thing.

I don't get why this poster is calling this a dad joke. Dad jokes are puns or corny humor. They're not insulting to half the population. Dads have daughters too.

I think maybe we are just going to disagree over how offensive the tweet was. I thought it was stupid, and offensive, but not burn it all down bad. I thought Weigel responded appropriately with his apology - and that a month's suspension without pay seemed extreme, but ok. You clearly see it as much worse than I did, and than many other people did. But there's a lot of you, too, so I have to acknowledge that as well.

I don't know. This whole thing just seemed to spiral out of control in a pretty crazy way.

I think you're used to a permissive work culture. I think many companies would have fired staff over that tweet--social media policies govern staff behavior and you're not supposed to do things publicly that make you/your employer look bad. Which is why I think it's awful that they fired the lady reporter...saying she had been criticizing other staff (i.e. making the WaPo look bad).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She acted crazy on Twitter. Coworkers shouldn’t be blasted online like that.

Um, you mean like the guy who wrote that all women are bipolar or bisexual? That guy who still has a job at the WaPo?

He got reprimanded, suspended, didn’t he? Did you want him to get fired for a stupid tweet?

You mean like she got fired for pointing out he made a stupid (misogynistic to be more accurate) tweet that insulted half of his coworkers? Collegiality my butt.

He literally didn’t make the tweet. And it was a bad dad joke that most sane people didn’t even care about.

Ok Wiegel. He shared the tweet. If I had done that in a public forum, my place of work would have fired him. And the dads I know don't talk about women in that way.

It's Weigel, not Wiegel. You work at a different place. He's not a dad.

The guy apologized, instantly, and was suspended without pay for a month. He is a good reporter who is usually goofy but not offensive on Twitter. I really don't see the possible justification for punishing him worse than this, over such a dumb thing.

I don't get why this poster is calling this a dad joke. Dad jokes are puns or corny humor. They're not insulting to half the population. Dads have daughters too.

I think maybe we are just going to disagree over how offensive the tweet was. I thought it was stupid, and offensive, but not burn it all down bad. I thought Weigel responded appropriately with his apology - and that a month's suspension without pay seemed extreme, but ok. You clearly see it as much worse than I did, and than many other people did. But there's a lot of you, too, so I have to acknowledge that as well.

I don't know. This whole thing just seemed to spiral out of control in a pretty crazy way.

I think you're used to a permissive work culture. I think many companies would have fired staff over that tweet--social media policies govern staff behavior and you're not supposed to do things publicly that make you/your employer look bad. Which is why I think it's awful that they fired the lady reporter...saying she had been criticizing other staff (i.e. making the WaPo look bad).

She was insubordinate. He wasn't. I think this is pretty clear. The workplace had devolved into chaos, and she kept making it worse - and they would never have any control whatsoever if she didn't face consequences.

I've worked places with permissive social media cultures and some without (I am freelance now but my last full time job forbade us from posting anything about politics at all on our personal social media, because we worked with a lot of lawmakers on both sides and it was thought that this could hurt our ability to do that if we expressed any thoughts about policies - that one was hard to abide during the Trump years, let me tell you).

[Anonymous]

He was suspended without pay for a month for *retweeting* a joke. She faced no repercussions for calling him out on it initially: it was her utter inability to drop it after his deletion, apology and suspension - after warnings from management that she needed to stop bullying her colleagues online.

The Post acted appropriately.

[Anonymous]

These are both good reads about the background of all of this. The Post. One if about the man she accused of assault and the other her rebuttal to that piece.

https://reason.com/2019/08/23/im-radioactive/

https://www.cjr.org/criticism/felicia-sonmez-metoo.php

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL. Anyone watching this unfold knew she was aiming to get fired so she could bring another lawsuit against the post. And she’d directly made far more insulting remarks about men than the other reporter who got suspended for merely re-Tweeting a joke that wasn’t nearly as malicious.

I don't know. Tweeting about all women being either "bisexual or bipolar" seems pretty hostile to me. I would be pissed to work with someone like that too, and think it's good she called him out.

My understanding is that he deleted it and apologized after she called him out on it. Had she dropped it at that point it would have been fine, but I believe she continued on a Twitter rampage. I think people forget they don’t have to put every thought of theirs on line.

I’m not that PP, but a reporter who feels free to retweet something that misogynist probably has a very long appalling history behind him. An apology probably doesn’t come close to covering what’s really going on.

They guy she took down was a huge supporter of hers in the initial dust up with the post. He made a mistake, owned it, and apologized. She goes scorched earth 100% of the time. It's hard to have a successful professional career if that is your approach. She was always going to be a problem for the Post and they are tired of dealing with her. It's not just about this one issue and I don't blame them for firing her. They have a business to run and she is making it more difficult to to do and always will.

This. I'm disgusted by the Post and am thinking of cancelling my subscription. I want to support the press but the misogyny that is prevalent in every single institution is infuriating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She acted crazy on Twitter. Coworkers shouldn’t be blasted online like that.

Um, you mean like the guy who wrote that all women are bipolar or bisexual? That guy who still has a job at the WaPo?

He got reprimanded, suspended, didn’t he? Did you want him to get fired for a stupid tweet?

You mean like she got fired for pointing out he made a stupid (misogynistic to be more accurate) tweet that insulted half of his coworkers? Collegiality my butt.

He literally didn’t make the tweet. And it was a bad dad joke that most sane people didn’t even care about.

Ok Wiegel. He shared the tweet. If I had done that in a public forum, my place of work would have fired him. And the dads I know don't talk about women in that way.

It's Weigel, not Wiegel. You work at a different place. He's not a dad.

The guy apologized, instantly, and was suspended without pay for a month. He is a good reporter who is usually goofy but not offensive on Twitter. I really don't see the possible justification for punishing him worse than this, over such a dumb thing.

I don't get why this poster is calling this a dad joke. Dad jokes are puns or corny humor. They're not insulting to half the population. Dads have daughters too.

I think maybe we are just going to disagree over how offensive the tweet was. I thought it was stupid, and offensive, but not burn it all down bad. I thought Weigel responded appropriately with his apology - and that a month's suspension without pay seemed extreme, but ok. You clearly see it as much worse than I did, and than many other people did. But there's a lot of you, too, so I have to acknowledge that as well.

I don't know. This whole thing just seemed to spiral out of control in a pretty crazy way.

I think you're used to a permissive work culture. I think many companies would have fired staff over that tweet--social media policies govern staff behavior and you're not supposed to do things publicly that make you/your employer look bad. Which is why I think it's awful that they fired the lady reporter...saying she had been criticizing other staff (i.e. making the WaPo look bad).

She was insubordinate. He wasn't. I think this is pretty clear. The workplace had devolved into chaos, and she kept making it worse - and they would never have any control whatsoever if she didn't face consequences.

I've worked places with permissive social media cultures and some without (I am freelance now but my last full time job forbade us from posting anything about politics at all on our personal social media, because we worked with a lot of lawmakers on both sides and it was thought that this could hurt our ability to do that if we expressed any thoughts about policies - that one was hard to abide during the Trump years, let me tell you).

"Insubordinate". Yet she persisted... I don't know about your workplace, but I wouldn't want to work somewhere that let a guy tweet like that about women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She acted crazy on Twitter. Coworkers shouldn’t be blasted online like that.

Um, you mean like the guy who wrote that all women are bipolar or bisexual? That guy who still has a job at the WaPo?

He got reprimanded, suspended, didn’t he? Did you want him to get fired for a stupid tweet?

You mean like she got fired for pointing out he made a stupid (misogynistic to be more accurate) tweet that insulted half of his coworkers? Collegiality my butt.

He literally didn’t make the tweet. And it was a bad dad joke that most sane people didn’t even care about.

Ok Wiegel. He shared the tweet. If I had done that in a public forum, my place of work would have fired him. And the dads I know don't talk about women in that way.

It's Weigel, not Wiegel. You work at a different place. He's not a dad.

The guy apologized, instantly, and was suspended without pay for a month. He is a good reporter who is usually goofy but not offensive on Twitter. I really don't see the possible justification for punishing him worse than this, over such a dumb thing.

I don't get why this poster is calling this a dad joke. Dad jokes are puns or corny humor. They're not insulting to half the population. Dads have daughters too.

I think maybe we are just going to disagree over how offensive the tweet was. I thought it was stupid, and offensive, but not burn it all down bad. I thought Weigel responded appropriately with his apology - and that a month's suspension without pay seemed extreme, but ok. You clearly see it as much worse than I did, and than many other people did. But there's a lot of you, too, so I have to acknowledge that as well.

I don't know. This whole thing just seemed to spiral out of control in a pretty crazy way.

I think you're used to a permissive work culture. I think many companies would have fired staff over that tweet--social media policies govern staff behavior and you're not supposed to do things publicly that make you/your employer look bad. Which is why I think it's awful that they fired the lady reporter...saying she had been criticizing other staff (i.e. making the WaPo look bad).

She was insubordinate. He wasn't. I think this is pretty clear. The workplace had devolved into chaos, and she kept making it worse - and they would never have any control whatsoever if she didn't face consequences.

I've worked places with permissive social media cultures and some without (I am freelance now but my last full time job forbade us from posting anything about politics at all on our personal social media, because we worked with a lot of lawmakers on both sides and it was thought that this could hurt our ability to do that if we expressed any thoughts about policies - that one was hard to abide during the Trump years, let me tell you).

"Insubordinate". Yet she persisted... I don't know about your workplace, but I wouldn't want to work somewhere that let a guy tweet like that about women.

That tweet was lame, at best. If you get offended by weak crap like that, then I can’t imagine how you would be at a work happy hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is the right outcome.

He should not have retweeted that stupid joke, but let’s keep things in perspective. Retweeting is a pretty minor thing that has very little to do with his job and he apologized for it. He should have apologized for it, but that should have been the end of it.

She was probably even fine pointing it out once on Twitter but really should have just pointed it out to him privately and maybe to the HR department if he didn’t immediately remove it. Everything after that was harassment on her part. Her response should have been in line with the nature of the offense. Demanding that a person get fired over a minor offense and then continuing to harass him publicly over something that should be an internal HR issue was grounds for her getting fired. None of us is perfect and we do not want to live in a world where silly minor things are blown up to be career-ending scandals.

+1

He tweeted something nasty about women, and she called it out on him. Why does he get a pass for maligning 50% of the population publicly, and she gets dinged for "lack of collegiality" for pointing out he's a misogynist. There's something wrong with that.

He didn’t get a pass, he was suspended for a month. She didn’t get dinged for pointing out misogyny, she got dinged for tweeting non-stop about it and airing WaPo’s dirty laundry.

So she was fired for whistleblowing? Even worse.

No.

Your "no" means "I disagree with you but have no good reason why I disagree."

You have no idea what proper whistleblowing is. What it is not - moaning on twitter and replying all with complaints to the entire newsroom.