A June 3rd retweet of a joke by Washington Post reporter David Weigel has sparked a days-long controversy over social media policy and workplace discrimination in journalism, with reporters at the Washington Post engaging in Twitter arguments with one another and describing a misogynistic environment in the newsroom. Weigel himself has since been suspended from WaPo for a month.

Dear Mr. Dave Weigel, I'm so sorry that I was not your mother… pic.twitter.com/ESUTCEs6Gt

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) June 7, 2022

Weigel’s retweet of a joke by @camharless, a self-described “shitposter” and podcast host, was criticized as sexist and ableist. His coworker at the Washington Post, Felicia Sonmez (a reporter who covers Chinese and American politics), tweeted about Weigel’s retweet and criticized WaPo for allowing it.

Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed! pic.twitter.com/zs4dX4qprH

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 3, 2022

Weigel then removed the retweet and apologized for the offensive joke that same day.

I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke. I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) June 3, 2022

But the argument did not end with Weigel’s retraction. Washington Post reporter José Del Real replied to Sonmez’s tweet criticizing Weigel, accusing her of clout chasing. The two coworkers proceeded to get into a heated Twitter argument that lasted most of the weekend and culminated in Del Real briefly deactivating his account.

Felicia, we all mess up from time to time. Engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague is neither a good look nor is it particularly effective. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying. I don’t think this is appropriate.

— Jose A. Del Real (@jdelreal) June 4, 2022

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I’ll end where I began: Let’s be kinder to each other. I really believe empathy is a necessary tool in this effort to improve our workplaces and our culture. We can all be better. I certainly will continue trying to be. 6/6

— Jose A. Del Real (@jdelreal) June 5, 2022

When Sonmez was suspended from the Washington Post in 2020 over a tweet of her own that shared sexual assault allegations against Kobe Bryant just hours after his death, Weigel was one of many employees who signed a letter in support of her and calling on the post to reinstate her, a fact that many of his defenders pointed out. At the time, Weigel even celebrated Sonmez's return post-suspension with a meme.

When @feliciasonmez comes back m to the newsroom https://t.co/ZXv8baPHgi pic.twitter.com/YZ5A43QRqD

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) January 29, 2020

Felicia Sonmez has continued to tweet, creating a 30-tweet thread describing her own experiences and feelings of being marginalized and not listened to while working at the Washington Post. In the thread, Sonmez describes “unequal treatment," alleging that minority reporters and reporters that are not “stars” are subject to different rules, while famous white male writers like Weigel “get away with murder.”

And honestly, we’ve known it for far longer than that.

For years, Post employees have been raising concerns of unequal treatment of employees from different backgrounds, or of “stars” versus everyone else -- not just when it comes to social media use.

None of this is new. 11/x

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 7, 2022

Sonmez has also documented the online harassment she has faced since publicly airing the issue.

Simply objecting to a retweet of a sexist joke -- and a colleague’s false accusation of “bullying” -- leads to … this. https://t.co/odRB1KhDo6 pic.twitter.com/Uovdcdghk8

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 7, 2022

Defenders of Sonmez have expressed sympathy with her, calling out the original joke Weigel retweeted as offensive and objecting to the behavior of Del Real and others who criticized Sonmez.

when I first saw @feliciasonmez criticizing that sexist retweet, I thought that she was right but it wasn’t a big deal. the horrific backlash to her totally justified criticism, including ongoing harassment by her male colleague, proves just how right she was about sexism at wapo

— Katie Martin (@katiedimartin) June 5, 2022

It’s interesting that so many men in media see Dave Weigel’s pattern of misogynistic jokes & comments as just “shitposting” but see @feliciasonmez’s public criticism of one of those jokes as “harassment”. https://t.co/HIalhiqROZ

— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) June 6, 2022

Dave Weigel retweeted a bad dumb joke and is paying minor consequences, but the journobros cannot cope.

lol

there are far bigger issues than a journalist paying consequences for violating a social media policy.

— ⚓️Imani Two-Kitchens Gandy⚓️ (@AngryBlackLady) June 7, 2022

Defenders of Weigel then criticized those who took offense at the joke and called the Post’s suspension of Weigel a cancel culture overreach. Many thought it absurd that Weigel should suffer such consequences for a comparatively minor offense. Some compared the treatment of Weigel to the treatment of other very-online WaPo reporters, such as Taylor Lorenz.

Dave Weigel has now suffered greater consequences for a retweet than anyone who promoted Iraq War WMD propaganda or banker porn about the 2008 global financial crisis https://t.co/LXIfQ7h1uN

— Sam Haselby (@samhaselby) June 6, 2022

Washington Post – having been forced to face the incontrovertible fact that Taylor Lorenz engaged in utterly unethical behavior and outright falsification – has investigated the matter thoroughly and suspended Dave Weigel.

— LoLNothingMatters (@DastDn) June 6, 2022

I hope the people that were out for blood after he already retracted and apologized are happy. But there’s no chance of that. No apology is ever good enough, no redemption is ever offered. Now people will talk about this forever as if it defines even 1% of @daveweigel’s career. https://t.co/9ZadAFYNxq

— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) June 6, 2022

The shitposter community had its own response to the news, with Cam Harless (the author of the joke that got Weigel suspended) using the publicity to promote his podcast and give interviews to outlets, such as The New York Post, promoting himself.

I mean, someone has to tweet the wrongthink for journalists to retweet and then apologize for, right?

— Cam Harless (@hamcarless) June 7, 2022

people are really glossing over the real victim in this dave weigel controversy: humble shitposters like myself, whom dave will now have to think twice about before retweeting.

— kim possible facts (@kimpossiblefact) June 7, 2022