Ex-Washington Post Media Reporter Wins Battle Against Paper After Being Suspended For Critical Tweet

Paul Farhi, a veteran media reporter and former top writer at The Washington Post, announced on Wednesday that he had won his lengthy battle with the Post over a 2022 suspension that stemmed from accurate reporting about the Post itself.

In March of 2022, Farhi tweeted, “Some internal news: In response to Putin’s threats against reporters in Russia, the @washingtonpost will remove bylines and datelines from stories produced by our journalists in Russia. Goal is to ensure staff’s safety.”

The veteran media reporter added, “Been around a while. Never seen anything like this.”

Politico later reported on the suspension, noting that it had lasted for five days and resulted in Farhi being docked his pay during that period.

Farhi, who now writes for The Atlantic, also noted that “he was suspended without discussion or chance of appeal.” The Washington-Baltimore News Guild filed a complaint on Farhi’s behalf to force arbitration on the issue and eventually won back both Farhi’s pay and got the Post to rescind the suspension retroactively. The Post defended its suspension of Farhi in response to the union’s complaint alleging that his tweet “jeopardized the safety of a colleague as well as the ability of The Washington Post to report in a foreign country.”

A spokesperson for the Post told Mediaite in a statement that the paper does not comment on personnel issues.

Farhi explained in his announcement that the backstory behind his suspension was “complicated,” but he boiled it down fairly succinctly, writing:

The Guild took the Post to court for unilaterally terminating a contractual right (the right to appeal a suspension) after our last contract expired and negotiations began on a new deal. The Guild lost suit at trial and appealed.

Farhi added that the Post settled the case and a D.C. court approved the settlement, ending his appeal. “Not to pile on the Post, which I revere, but my tweet was a factual and accurate description of the Post’s editorial policy, which the Post itself announced a few hours later,” he added highlighting the often difficult task a media reporter has covering their own publication.

He ended his thread by thanking his union and offering journalists a “pro tip”: “Join (or start) a union in your workplace. It’s the best way to guarantee your workplace rights. End.”