Cancel culture feud boils over at Washington Post after tasteless retweet
10.06.2022 - 23:35
/ msn.com
ordered to pay millions to ex-husband Johnny Depp in an ugly defamation lawsuit that was broadcast to the world and reignited national discussion around sexism and sexual abuse. The original message had been made in the context of other tweets about the Depp/Heard case. Felicia Sonmez, a colleague of Mr Weigel’s on the politics desk, took exception to the tweet, sarcastically writing last Friday that it was “fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed”.
Mr Weigel quickly apologised and took down the offending post. On Monday, the paper issued a company-wide statement announcing Mr Weigel, 40, would be suspended without pay for a month. On Thursday, Ms Sonmez was fired.
There is a common understanding of collegiality in the media, often expressed in the US as “no shooting inside the tent”. However, Washington Post employees quickly began exchanging public recriminations and accusations over the Post’s handling of Ms Sonmez’s complaint. The 145-year-old newspaper – known for its award-winning Watergate scoop – suddenly found itself embroiled in its own internal scandal, casting a shadow over its journalism and raising much more searching questions on the MeToo movement, cancel culture, and how institutions can best steer themselves through periods of social and cultural change.
The paper was split between those who thanked Ms Sonmez “for speaking out against harassment, discrimination and sexism” and those who have criticised her for turning what was essentially a HR issue into a “town-square flogging”. “Dave’s retweet is terrible and unacceptable. But rallying the internet to attack him for a mistake he made doesn’t actually solve anything,” wrote colleague Jose Del Real on Twitter, before he
.
The website popstar.one is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.