- Monday, January 27, 2020

Felicia Sonmez, a journalist at Washington’s other newspaper, was one of the few who weighed in after Bryant’s death with a discordant note. As news of the helicopter crash broke, she tweeted a link to a Daily Beast article recounting the details of a 2003 sex assault charge that was brought against the then-Laker. (The case was eventually dropped and Bryant paid an undisclosed settlement.)

Was Ms. Sonmez’s tweet in bad taste? Perhaps. The basketball star’s body had probably not even been removed from the hillside where the helicopter crashed when she issued it.

What it was not, it would seem, was cause for professional punishment. Yet that’s exactly what Ms. Sonmez’s employer, The Washington Post, subjected her to. Tracy Grant, the newspaper’s managing editor, told the Daily Mail on Sunday that “National political reporter Felicia Sonmez was placed on administrative leave while The Post reviews whether tweets about the death of Kobe Bryant violated The Post newsroom’s social media policy.”

So, to recap: A Washington Post journalist was suspended for the “crime” of tweeting a link to a factual article about a famous celebrity who had died recently. Since when has sharing credible news stories about important subjects been something that journalists aren’t supposed to do?

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