The metamorphosis of the Washington Post:

Longtime Washington Post writer Karen Attiah says she has been fired from the publication’s Opinions department for “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.”

The Post, which has been overhauling the entire department, declined to comment on personnel matters. But Attiah’s Post biography has been revised to say she “was” a columnist, indicating she is no longer employed.

…

Attiah posted a string of messages about political violence in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week. She criticized what she called “empty rhetoric” denouncing violence that hasn’t been matched by actions.

One of her posts asserted that “part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.”

Attiah didn’t reference Kirk by name, but she also said to a commenter that “refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is… not the same as violence.”

Did he in fact espouse violence though? I haven’t researched the subject but the impression I have via the reporting is that he didn’t. He espoused hierarchies, but that’s not the same thing. I know one can go all rhetorical and point out how (silently, passively) hierarchies are in fact violent, but it does matter what people actually say and what they don’t say.

Attiah wrote in a Monday blog post that “my commentary received thoughtful engagement across platforms, support, and virtually no public backlash.”

But her assertion that Kirk “espoused violence” may have been flagged by Post management.

Two Post staffers told CNN that management also took issue with Attiah misquoting a Kirk remark on affirmative action from 2023.

…

The Opinion department has been in turmoil for months, driven by Post owner Jeff Bezos and his desire to change the direction of the editorial board.

Bezos said in February that “we are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” Over the summer the Post hired a new Opinion editor, Adam O’Neal, who said he would reorient the department accordingly.

I notice some missing pillars. Equality, justice, compassion – the stuff that can sometimes get in the way of absolute “personal liberties.”