June 9, 2022

"Sonmez on Friday used her Twitter account to call attention to a colleague, David Weigel, for retweeting a sexist joke."

"'Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!' Sonmez tweeted in response.... Weigel apologized for the retweet and deleted it from his account. The Post subsequently suspended him without pay for a month for violating its social media policies.... In the ensuing days, Sonmez continued to use her Twitter account to focus on the incident, retweeting criticism of Weigel.... Over the weekend, Jose A. Del Real, another Post reporter, asked Sonmez to cease her criticisms, tweeting, 'Felicia, we all mess up from time to time. Engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague is neither a good look nor is it particularly effective. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying.' Del Real later tweeted that his back-and-forth with Sonmez prompted a 'barrage of online abuse directed by one person but carried out by an eager mob.' Sonmez then posted screenshots of Del Real’s tweets and wrote: 'It’s hard for me to understand why The Washington Post hasn’t done anything about these tweets.'"

From "Felicia Sonmez terminated by The Washington Post after Twitter dispute" (WaPo).

30 comments:

Buckwheathikes said...

Elon Musk has to be laughing his azz off right now, having precipitated all of this and seeing it echoing so far into the zeitgeist.

hawkeyedjb said...

Goodness, why do people partake in this awful nonsense? I wouldn't dream of getting involved in back-and-forth insults with co-workers on some public platform. What on earth could that possibly accomplish? A sense of adult propriety seems to be missing here.

hawkeyedjb said...

Goodness, why do people partake in this awful nonsense? I wouldn't dream of getting involved in back-and-forth insults with co-workers on some public platform. What on earth could that possibly accomplish? A sense of adult propriety seems to be missing here.

Tomcc said...

One can engage in a lot of abuse at the Post before any disciplinary actions is taken. Tolerant managers.

Sebastian said...

"Engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague is neither a good look nor is it particularly effective. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying."

The gay Mexican for the win.

But now the chaser has been chased out. Pour encourager les autres? Let's not get our hopes up that this is the beginning of the end of prog bullying and tweet shaming.

William said...

Interesting and, in my view, enjoyable plot twist. This is not, however, the end of our hero's journey. I see parallels here with the Dreyfus case. Maybe Amber Heard can star in the movie version of Felicia's struggle for justice and vindication.

Buckwheathikes said...

I'm just curious if anyone knows: Whilst all this was happening, how many news stories did Ms. Sonmez write for the Washington Post? I don't read the entire newspaper, but I don't remember her writing any news stories.

I mean, my assumption is that they hired her because she is a reporter who writes news stories? And that they pay her to do that.

Can anyone point me to any by-lined news story she has written in the last say 6 months?

Should news organizations be beholden to employees who, in their Twitter masthead say "Follow me on Instagram"?" Not: "Follow Me At the Washington Post"

Who is working for whom here?

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Say goodbye, Felecia

WaPo management told everyone to shut up on Twitter and in public about problems with co-workers

Felecia decided that her "victim status" entitled her to ignore that

WaPo management decided that she was NOT the most important person at the entire paper, and so quite properly fired her.

From beginning to end she acted wretchedly, and she finally got some of what she deserved

It's one of the few good actions by WaPo management in the last decade

rhhardin said...

Firing just adds to WaPo's reputation.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I thought it might be a twist on 'jobsworth' but maybe not...

"A jobsworth is a person who uses the (typically minor) authority of their job in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights..."
"... in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner. It characterizes one who upholds petty rules even at the expense of effectiveness or efficiency. 'Jobsworth' is a British colloquial word derived from the phrase 'I can't do that, it's more than my job's worth,' meaning that to do what is requested of them would be against what their job requires and would be likely to cause them to lose their job.


In this case her pettiness cost her her job. (reddit says it's ok to use 'her' back to back like that) I don't know for sure.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

I am delighted at the great number of "Bi Felicia" and "There are two types of Bi, sexual and Felicia" jokes making their way around the internet

She deserves every bit of nastiness that comes her way

RideSpaceMountain said...

Usually I would say 'learn to code' but honestly, she's not a good candidate. She would however probably make good money with a sawbuck or two in her mouth. She looks spry too.

Spry, Felicia.

Kevin said...

When everybody says you’re drunk, sit down.

Creola Soul said...

This dispute went on far too long and far too public! This is the curse of social media that these matter play out in public. Where were the adults? Not too many years ago someone, maybe from the Board of Directors or the Corporate Counsel, would call the CEO and tell them to stop this madness…..now! The Washington Post is reporting its own death. Democracy may die in darkness but WaPo is dying in the harsh glare of social media. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
Oh, and the reporting that “we tried to contact the subject of this article” is an old dodge. Reporters have long worked on stories, maybe for weeks, but would wait until five minutes before releasing to call for comments. If you weren’t in, you got a terse voice mail, saying we’re going to print “soon” give us a call. By the time you get the message, it’s printed. Or, if you actually get the call, you don’t have the article in front of you so you’re commenting on pieces. The lessons of “Absence of Malice” are still in play. So, yes, the WaPo has worked hard, and for decades, on this decline in reputation.

Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...

I suspect she got just what she thought she wanted - woke street cred and (in her mind) grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit. I’ll bet she gets mugged by reality on the lawsuit though.

Readering said...

Bold move. WaPo unionized. But it did seem an intolerable situation for the company.

cfs said...

Watching the "twitter dispute" at WaPo unfold over the past few days all because of a funny joke has been like watching a group of 14 year old girls creating havoc at school because one of them was offended about a comment regarding her hair. I can't believe this "news" outlet is one people turn to daily for their take on the important news of the day.

gspencer said...

Wow! What a piece of work that one is.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Good for the Post. I would have fired her three years ago for suing the Post for not assigning her to cover the Kavanaugh hearings. And yet Taylor the slow Lorens is still writing fakenews and throwing editors under buses. What a collegial environment!

Ray - SoCal said...

And she was the same lady that destroyed a male journalist’s career…

https://instapundit.com/524961/

mccullough said...

Fire them all.

Curious George said...

Link

tim maguire said...

It's good to know there is some limit to what people like Sonmez can get away with. The WaPo hasn't completely abandoned the idea of having some self-respect for its institutional reputation. Now, if only I had any confidence that they would care if her targets weren't other WaPo journalists...

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

Said about another setting, but apropos-
The disputes are so vicious because the stakes are so small.

Kai Akker said...

---The disputes are so vicious because the stakes are so small.

My thought at first, too. But don't say that to Jon Kaiman.

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

The Glory That Was Feminism.

John henry said...

Lem beat me to the Jobsworth comment though I was going to come at it from a different angle.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, the editor in chief, Sue Buzzworth(Title? Name?) sent out a memo telling everyone to just cut it out. Shortly after, 15-20, maybe more, newsroom folks posted tweets about how much they loved working at the Post, how "collegial" it was and how "Proud" they were of their reporting. All the tweets were very similar language anf the same key words like proud and collegial.

Some blogs posted these saying how it was a creepy example of groupthink.

A few saw what I think I saw. The silent contempt I mentioned from the military. Telling the editor, and perhaps Felicia, what pieces of shit they were but in a way that neither could complain about. Though, felicia found a way to complain anyway and it was probably the straw that got her fired.

Seems like a good example of a jobsworth in action.

Playboy in the 60s used to do a thing called Aptly Yclept pointing out things that were well named. Wolf Blitzer for a (supposedly) hardhitting war reporter would be a modern example.

Felicia would be an example of un-aptly yclept. Felicia means "happy" She seems anything but.

John LGKTQ Henry

John henry said...

A few months ago Elon Musk sent Jeff Bezos a Silver medal congratulating him on being #2, 2nd richest man in the world.

It is going to be interesting once Musk owns Twitter to see the world's 2 richest men going after each other on their own personal media platforms.

Another thought:

In the 30's at the height of the terror Russians used to say "If only Stalin knew"

Bezos used to be a pretty liberal fellow. (as in classical liberal, libertarian) "If only Bezos knew" what was going on at his personal newspaper.

John LGKTQ Henry

Tomcc said...

There should have been a point at which someone asked of Ms. Sonmez, "Don't you have any work to do?".

Greg The Class Traitor said...

hawkeyedjb said...
Goodness, why do people partake in this awful nonsense?

Because she's a vile drama queen, and a dishonest bully and thug, who has used Twitter in the past to destroy people's lives, and was eager to do so again.

I am no fan of Dave Weigle, but I will LMAO if Dave comes back from his unpaid suspension and keeps his job after Felicia loses hers

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Creola Soul said...
This dispute went on far too long and far too public! This is the curse of social media that these matter play out in public. Where were the adults? Not too many years ago someone, maybe from the Board of Directors or the Corporate Counsel, would call the CEO and tell them to stop this madness…..now!

They tried. They issued a public order for everyone to STFU. Felicia refused, so she was quite properly fired.