Washington Post reverses suspension of reporter who tweeted about Kobe Bryant

The Washington Post has reversed its widely criticized decision to suspend one of its reporters over her tweets about Kobe Bryant.

One of the paper’s managing editors, Tracy Grant, wrote in a statement released Tuesday afternoon that while the reporter’s tweets were “ill-timed, she was not in clear and direct violation of our social media policy.”

The Post’s decision to undo the suspension came amid public pressure from Washington Post staffers, as well as other journalists and media critics who criticized the paper and its leadership for what they saw as an overreaction.

In the wake of Bryant’s death on Sunday, Felicia Sonmez, a national political reporter for the Post, tweeted a link to a 2016 Daily Beast article with the headline “Kobe Bryant’s Disturbing Rape Case.”

Bryant was accused in 2003 of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel employee in Colorado. He was charged with rape, but the case was dropped after the accuser declined to testify. A civil suit was later settled.

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Bryant, who married Vanessa Laine in 2001, admitted to having had sex with the woman but insisted that it was consensual.

Sonmez’s tweet was widely criticized by other Twitter users as being insensitive to Bryant, who died along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven other passengers in a helicopter crash. Sonmez said she received abuse and death threats and checked into a hotel that night, fearing for her safety.

Sonmez was then placed on administrative leave. In a statement issued about the suspension, Grant said “the tweets displayed poor judgment that undermined the work of her colleagues.”

Minutes earlier, The Washington Post’s executive editor, Marty Baron, sent Sonmez an email, obtained by The New York Times and confirmed by NBC News: “Felicia. A real lack of judgment to tweet this. Please stop. You’re hurting this institution by doing this.”

Sonmez’s suspension and Baron’s curt email confounded many Post staffers, sources at the paper told NBC News. Her tweet linked to a credible report about the previous charges against Bryant, and she did not appear to be in violation of the Post’s social media policy.

The Washington Post’s own media critic, Erik Wemple, called Baron’s decision “misguided,” and noted in the newspaper’s opinion section that the Post itself had published a similar report about the allegations against Bryant.

Other members of the media were similarly dumbstruck. Recode’s Peter Kafka said it was “ridiculous that the Post penalized its reporter for acknowledging that Bryant, in addition to being beloved by many people, was credibly accused of rape.”

Daily Beast media reporter Max Tani noted on Twitter that the paper’s “only explanation was she was tweeting off her beat (everyone does that) and making it hard for other WaPo reporters to do their jobs (but they won’t explain how tweeting a factual article made others lives harder).”

In its statement Tuesday, Grant said that “reporters on social media represent The Washington Post, and our policy states ‘we must be ever mindful of preserving the reputation of The Washington Post for journalistic excellence, fairness and independence.’ We consistently urge restraint, which is particularly important when there are tragic deaths. We regret having spoken publicly about a personnel matter.”

source: nbcnews.com