Read the Kobe Bryant-Related Tweets That Led Washington Post to Suspend Reporter Felicia Sonmez
Washington Post national political reporter Felicia Sonmez was suspended by the paper over the weekend over tweets she sent out after the news broke of Kobe Bryant’s death.
The former NBA superstar, his teenage daughter Gianna, and seven other people died in a helicopter crash in California. In the middle of the outpouring of grief for Bryant, Sonmez posted a link to an article about the sexual assault allegations that were leveled against him back in 2003.
Sonmez said she received a considerable amount of blowback for her tweet, but in a couple of now-deleted tweets, she defended her decision to post the article by saying, “any public figure is worth remembering in their totality even if that public figure is beloved and that totality unsettling.”
Somnez eventually took down her posts and reporter Matthew Keys said the Post is investigating whether her tweets violated their social media policy. He later elaborated that the Post is specifically looking at whether Somnez breached their policy by posting a screengrab from her email inbox that showed the full names of her Twitter critics.
UPDATE: A person who works at the Washington Post says @feliciasonmez was NOT suspended for linking to the Daily Beast story on Twitter. Her suspension was related to a follow up tweet that contained a screen shot of her work email inbox, which revealed full names of emailers.
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) January 27, 2020
“Her managers don’t care about the Daily Beast tweet,” a Washington Post employee told me. “But there’s a concern that the screen shot (of her email inbox) might create some legal issues and could violate Twitter’s terms (of service).” https://t.co/66EyVcPsex https://t.co/9JjJnC0uno
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) January 27, 2020
