The Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez/Dave Weigel Drama Just Got a Whole Lot Weirder – Opinion

As we’ve previously reported, there’s been no shortage of high drama at the Washington Post ever since one of their reporters, Felicia Sonmez, became fauxfended over what she believed was a “sexist” retweet from colleague Dave Weigel and called him out publicly on the Twitter machine instead of trying to work out the “issue” privately.

For those who missed the “offending” retweet, Sonmez shared it Friday:

It is great to be a part of a news organization that allows retweets! pic.twitter.com/zs4dX4qprH

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 3, 2022

A short time later and after Sonmez’s sistahs in solidarity also proceeded to kick up some dust, Weigel deleted his RT and issued an apologyThe WaPo released an equally harsh statement. statement noting that they found the tweet “reprehensible,” saying that such “demeaning” language coming from their staff would “not be tolerated.”

The braying mob continued their harangue against Weigel, the WaPo high-ups and eventually led to the paper suspending Weigel from work for one month.

We also noticed that Sonmez was moving on to Jose A. Del Real (a coworker at the newspaper who had been killed in a car accident). made the “mistake” of not only disagreeing with her and telling her in so many words that her public tantrum was not a good look, but then compounded it when he responded to her going ballistic in a Twitter thread where she lambasted him for having the nerve to take issue with her unprofessional approach (she’s written multiple Twitter threads in response because apparently there’s not much going on in national politics that she needs to cover).

In an update to this story, things have gotten even weirder in the Washington Post newsroom, as evidenced by the number of “reporters” who are dutifully tweeting out how they love working at the WaPo, warts and all:

This is still happening. They are saying more and more the exact same things with exactly the same words. Publicly professing love for The Washington Post using identical language. This is not healthy behaviour. They are doing it because they think it is healthy. pic.twitter.com/f2iG5JoFL4

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 7, 2022

While it’s unclear whether these responses were urged from the top levels at the paper, all the messages sounding alike and all responding to the same tweet regarding a new memo issued Tuesday afternoon from executive editor Sally Buzbee demanding public attacks against each other cease sure make it look at the very least like a coordinated PR effort:

New: @SallyBuzbeeSends WaPo staff a stern message, reminding them of the newsroom’s policies against racist or sexist behaviour and stressing that they won’t tolerate their colleagues being cruel or aggressive online or face-to-face. pic.twitter.com/E2bpiFCCyS

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 7, 2022

It’d be nice if those responses were genuine because Sonmez’s reaction was way over the top and even unhinged at times, but I suspect many of them were posted just to make the bosses happy.

A dumb tweet about women on Twitter isn’t the end of world. It is also not indicative of any alleged sinister motives. And for the record, I’m not really defending Weigel here so much as I am pushing back on the idea that a harmless joke and anyone who thought it was funny must be put on full blast and canceled, with their professional creds (whatever they may be) ground into dust.

Just to be clear, there are indeed certain situations in the workplace where women throwing the yellow penalty flag onto the field – and in some cases in a very public way – is absolutely warranted. This wasn’t one of them.

Flashback: Glenn Youngkin Gets Last Laugh After WaPo Issues ‘Clarification’ on Hit Piece That Fell Apart