The Washington Post has fired now-former global opinions editor Karen Attiah after she appeared to celebrate the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. That comes amid a range of firings across multiple sectors of people who apparently have no self-control whatsoever, nor the common decency to practice it.
Kirk was murdered by a far-left radical who had a "trans-furry" boyfriend while holding an open debate on a Utah college campus. The shooter, Tyler Robinson, fled after firing the fatal shot before his father and a youth pastor detained and turned him in a day later.
For her part, Attiah reacted to the shooting by posting the following on the left-wing site, Blue Sky.
"Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person's slot."
-Charlie Kirk
It was an obvious attempt to justify Kirk's murder, which was bad enough. What was worse, though, is that the quote was fabricated. Kirk never said it.
That led to Attiah being relieved of her duties at the Post.
"The Washington Post fired me" over Charlie Kirk posts, writes @KarenAttiah.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) September 15, 2025
"I have been canceled by Columbia. I have now been canceled by the Washington Post." https://t.co/3kLfcwq99h
Some immediately screamed that this was a negative example of "right-wing cancel culture." In other words, if a columnist for a major newspaper can't make up a quote to smear someone who was assassinated, are any of us truly free? As I explained recently, we are allowed to use common sense when discussing "cancel culture."
Let me explain this to the leftists suddenly deeply concerned about cancel culture.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) September 13, 2025
Digging up decade old tweets of jokes or hacking a political donation to get someone fired is cancel culture.
People getting fired for currently, openly cheering murder is not cancel culture.
After getting the boot, Attiah showed no remorse. Instead, she posted a picture of her setting the Post on fire with a rose in her mouth. Included was a link to her Substack, where she doubled down on the fake quote.
When you post blatant lies, they catch up...this was one pic.twitter.com/kU7OBwFrsW
— Isles-N-Chargers (@The_Husky_Knows) September 15, 2025
Unsurprisingly, Attiah has a history of extremism. In the days after the October 7th attacks by Hamas, she scolded then-President Joe Biden for offering support to Israel. After receiving criticism for her flippantness, she pushed back by mocking those who showed empathy to those murdered by Hamas. In 2018, Attiah also published an op-ed by a terrorist leader of the Houthis, claiming his viewpoint needed to be heard.
The real question is how she kept her job this long. While I'm glad the Post finally took action, it is absurd that Attiah was kept on the payroll for years on end, even as she excused violence against her perceived political opponents and promoted the ideas of Islamic terrorists. Lastly, lest anyone believe Attiah was a free speech absolutist, she lobbied to get the editor fired who published Tom Cotton's 2020 op-ed suggesting the use of the military to quell widespread, left-wing riots.
So yeah, I don't think I'm interested in hearing about "cancel culture" from these people.
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