{"id":9107,"date":"2020-01-27T22:43:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T06:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=9107"},"modified":"2020-01-28T04:45:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:45:04","slug":"post1-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=9107","title":{"rendered":"“WaPo Union Condemns Management for Suspending Reporter Over Kobe Tweet”, The Daily Beast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maxwell Tani, Media reporter and Lloyd Grove, Editor At Large, January 27, 2002<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Post\u2019s handling of this issue shows utter disregard for best practices in supporting survivors of sexual violence,\u201d the paper\u2019s editorial guild wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s editorial union on Monday slammed the company for suspending a reporter who tweeted about a years-old rape allegation against Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe write to share our alarm and dismay that our newsroom leaders have chosen to place Felicia Sonmez on leave over a social media post, and to urgeThe Post<\/em> to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of our colleague,\u201d the union\u2019s members wrote in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The longtime Los Angeles Lakers star, along with eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, died Sunday<\/a> in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California. Bryant\u2019s death unleashed an outpouring of public grief for the basketball icon, who shattered records and racked up accomplishments including five NBA championship titles, Olympic gold medals, and multiple MVP nods.<\/p>\n

But many were quick to point out that Bryant\u2019s legacy was tainted by a credible rape allegation from 2003, in which a then-19-year-old resort staffer claimed the NBA star sexually assaulted her in a hotel room.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Washington Post<\/em> reporter Felicia Sonmez posted to Twitter a link to The Daily Beast\u2019s 2016 article<\/a> recapping those allegations and the evidence behind them. Thousands of social-media users, including Donald Trump Jr., attacked her. And so, in subsequent tweets, she screenshotted an emailed threat she received, and reminded \u201cthe 10,000 people (literally) who have commented and emailed me with abuse and death threats\u201d that the linked story was \u201cwritten 3+ years ago and not by me.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to The New York Times<\/a><\/em>, Sonmez received an email from the Post<\/em>\u2019s executive editor, Martin Baron, that included a screenshot of her initial tweet on the allegations against Bryant.<\/p>\n

\u201cFelicia,\u201d Baron wrote. \u201cA real lack of judgment to tweet this. Please stop. You\u2019re hurting this institution by doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonmez was then suspended by the newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cNational political reporter Felicia Sonmez was placed on administrative leave while The Post <\/em>reviews whether tweets about the death of Kobe Bryant violatedThe Post <\/em>newsroom\u2019s social media policy,\u201d said Tracy Grant, the newspaper\u2019s managing editor for staff development and standards, in a statement. \u201cThe tweets displayed poor judgment that undermined the work of her colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her punishment drew condemnation from the Post<\/em>\u2019s editorial guild, which represents a significant portion of the paper\u2019s editorial staffers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge The Post <\/em>to immediately provide Felicia with a security detail and take whatever other steps are necessary to ensure her safety, as it has done in the past when other reporters were subject to threats,\u201d the guild wrote in its Monday statement. \u201cThe company should issue a statement condemning abuse of its reporters, allow Felicia to return to work, rescind whatever sanctions have been imposed and provide her with any resources she may request as she navigates this traumatic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union added, \u201cThis is not the first time that The Post <\/em>has sought to control how Felicia speaks on matters of sexual violence. Felicia herself is a survivor of assault who bravely came forward with her story two years ago. When articles attacking her were published in other outlets, The Post <\/em>did not release a statement in support of one of its respected political reporters. Instead, management issued a warning letter against Felicia for violating The Post<\/em>\u2019s vague and inconsistently enforced social media guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And in his write-up of the events, Post<\/em> media columnist Erik Wemple railed against his employer\u2019s decision<\/a>, saying it was \u201cmisguided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonmez, for her part, told Wemple that she was suspended after reaching out to the paper\u2019s editors to alert them to threats she received in response to her Bryant post. She was then told by Grant to take down the tweets, saying if she did not Sonmez would be \u201cin violation of a directive from a managing editor.\u201d In an email Somnez shared with Wemple, the paper\u2019s managing editor warned the reporter that \u201cyour behavior on social media is making it harder for others to do their work as Washington Post<\/em> journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that not ignoring a matter of public record is the way to go and making survivors feel seen and heard helps Washington Post<\/em> journalists rather than making our jobs harder,\u201d Sonmez told Wemple. \u201cI\u2019m a little confused. If The Post<\/em> is arguing that letting those survivors feel seen makes other colleagues\u2019 jobs harder, I\u2019d appreciate an explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wemple further argued that by the paper\u2019s own social-media standards, Sonmez\u2019s tweets \u201cwould appear to invite a pat on the back from management.\u201d According to internal guidelines, he wrote, the paper instructs reporters simply to \u201cbe informative,\u201d \u201cfact-check\u201d all information you share, and \u201ctake ownership\u201d for posting any erroneous information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case also reflects fundamental flaws in The Post<\/em>\u2019s arbitrary and over-broad social media policy. We have repeatedly seen colleagues\u2014including members of management\u2014share contentious opinions on social media platforms without sanction,\u201d the guild added in its statement. \u201cBut here a valued colleague is being censured for making a statement of fact. Felicia did nothing more than what The Post\u2019s<\/em> own news stories have done when she shared an article about the past allegation against Bryant.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, the company\u2019s increasingly strict social-media rules have caused some internal friction.<\/p>\n

According to a source familiar, in 2017 the Post<\/em> issued an edict that employees could be fired if their tweets \u201cadversely affect the integrity of The Post<\/em>\u2019s journalism, adversely affect your job performance or the performance of your coworkers, or otherwise adversely affect The Post\u2019s<\/em> legitimate business interests,\u201d per a copy shared with The Daily Beast.<\/p>\n

The policy raised eyebrows among the staff\u2019s editorial union, which brought concerns about the policy to management. When the company refused to negotiate on the policy\u2019s language, the company\u2019s editorial union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board for unfair labor practices, and eventually forced the company to roll back some of the language in its new social-media policy.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post <\/em>would not specify why exactly Sonmez was suspended, or which part of the social-media guidelines she had violated. Grant did not respond to a voicemail message from The Daily Beast, and executive editor Marty Baron likewise didn\u2019t respond to emailed questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not commenting beyond what Tracy had to say last night.\u201d Post<\/em>spokesperson Kris Coeratti told The Daily Beast.<\/p>\n

Full statement below, via Post Guild.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

To Marty Baron and Tracy Grant:<\/em><\/p>\n

We write to share our alarm and dismay that our newsroom leaders have chosen to place Felicia Sonmez on leave over a social media post, and to urge The Post to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of our colleague.<\/em><\/p>\n

Felicia received an onslaught of violent messages, including threats that contained her home address, in the wake of a tweet Sunday regarding Kobe Bryant. Instead of protecting and supporting a reporter in the face of abuse, The Post placed her on administrative leave while newsroom leaders review whether she violated the social media policy. Felicia had to leave her home out of fear for her safety and has gotten insufficient guidance from the Post on how to protect herself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We understand the hours after Bryant\u2019s death Sunday were a fraught time to share reporting about past accusations of sexual assault. The loss of such a beloved figure, and of so many other lives, is a tragedy. But we believe it is our responsibility as a news organization to tell the public the whole truth as we know it \u2014 about figures and institutions both popular and unpopular, at moments timely and untimely.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is not the first time that The Post has sought to control how Felicia speaks on matters of sexual violence. Felicia herself is a survivor of assault who bravely came forward with her story two years ago. When articles attacking her were published in other outlets, The Post did not release a statement in support of one of its respected political reporters. Instead, management issued a warning letter against Felicia for violating The Post\u2019s vague and inconsistently enforced social media guidelines.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s handling of this issue shows utter disregard for best practices in supporting survivors of sexual violence \u2014 including the practices we use in our own journalism. Assault survivors inside and outside this newsroom deserve treatment that is fair and transparent; that does not blame victims or compromise the safety of survivors.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This case also reflects fundamental flaws in The Post\u2019s arbitrary and over-broad social media policy. We have repeatedly seen colleagues \u2014 including members of management \u2014 share contentious opinions on social media platforms without sanction. But here a valued colleague is being censured for making a statement of fact. Felicia did nothing more than what The Post\u2019s own news stories have done when she shared an article about the past allegation against Bryant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even now, after numerous conflicting reports have been published about Felicia\u2019s situation, The Post has failed to offer a clear explanation of why she was placed on leave \u2014 to Felicia or to anyone else. We are concerned by The Post’s unwillingness to be transparent about this issue, and alarmed by the implication that reporters will be penalized for talking about any topic not on their beat.<\/em><\/p>\n

We urge The Post to immediately provide Felicia with a security detail and take whatever other steps are necessary to ensure her safety, as it has done in the past when other reporters were subject to threats. The company should issue a statement condemning abuse of its reporters, allow Felicia to return to work, rescind whatever sanctions have been imposed and provide her with any resources she may request as she navigates this traumatic experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We also hope that Post management will work with the Guild to educate themselves on treatment of assault survivors and improve the social media policy so that employees can get back to the work we all want to be doing: journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\u00a0The Daily Beast<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maxwell Tani, Media reporter and Lloyd Grove, Editor At Large, January 27, 2002 \u201cThe Post\u2019s handling of this issue shows utter disregard for best practices in supporting survivors of sexual violence,\u201d the paper\u2019s editorial guild wrote. The Washington Post\u2019s editorial union on Monday slammed the company for suspending a reporter who tweeted about a years-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9107"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9131,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9107\/revisions\/9131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}