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The Washington Post suspended its longtime reporter Paul Farhi in March for five days without pay and the union representing him has gone to the courts to seek arbitration of his unresolved grievance over the decision.
According to the Washington-Baltimore News Guild's complaint to compel arbitration filed in the U.S. District Court on Friday, Farhi was suspended around March 10 by managing editors Tracy Grant and Krissah Thompson on the grounds that he "jeopardized the safety of a colleague as well as the ability of The Washington Post to report in a foreign country." Grant has since left to join Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Fox News Digital has confirmed Farhi, the Post's in-house media reporter who's covered various beats there since 1988, was reprimanded because he tweeted "some internal news" on March 4 that the paper would remove bylines and datelines from its journalists' stories filed from Russia, out of concern for their safety amid the Ukraine invasion.
"Been around a while. Never seen anything like this," he tweeted about the news. Other outlets reported on the Post's decision in the aftermath and the newspaper publicly shortly after announced the byline policy, but according to his letter of suspension, Farhi had violated the paper's social media policies by tweeting about it.
The Washington Post has had no shortage of internal drama in 2022. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In the complaint to the D.C. court obtained by Fox News Digital, the News Guild said Farhi had been punished for "accurately reporting internally Post news in the course of his duties as a media reporter." Farhi often writes about goings-on at the Post in addition to covering other media outlets. It went on to say the Guild had advanced Farhi's grievance through multiple steps without resolution before the Post contested the idea of settling the grievance through arbitration, an out-of-court method of settling a dispute.
The Washingtonian, whose staff is represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild as well, obtained the suspension letter that accused Farhi of violating the paper's social media policies.
Farhi filed a grievance on March 14, arguing the suspension was without cause, and the Post eventually informed Guild counsel on Aug. 9 that the "Post believes the grievance is not arbitrable" on the grounds that the collective bargaining agreement had expired. The Guild disputed that the Post was relieved of its contractual obligation with the union to settle Farhi's case after the CBA expired at the end of June. A new CBA between the parties is currently being negotiated.
The Washington Post declined comment. A review of Farhi's online profile showed he didn't publish any stories between March 10 and March 24, but he has been active since then.
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It's the latest internal drama for the newspaper after the Felicia Sonmez saga in June, where the reporter raged publicly against Washington Post leadership and her colleagues over what she deemed a toxic, sexist workplace environment. That had begun when Sonmez lambasted fellow Post reporter Dave Weigel after he retweeted a joke about women, for which he apologized but was nevertheless suspended for a month.
The Washington Post finally fired Sonmez in June after her public outbursts against the paper continued, and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild filed a grievance on her behalf as well in June "to challenge the dismissal as a violation of her rights to job security under the terms of Article X of the collective bargaining agreement."
In the same complaint on Friday about Farhi's case, the union said the Post had unlawfully refused to submit the Sonmez grievance to binding arbitration as well and had violated its contractual obligations in her case, too.
The paper was forced to update its social media policy after Sonmez's meltdown and tone ensuing media frenzy.
"A Post journalist’s use of social media must not harm the editorial integrity or journalistic reputation of The Post," the memo obtained by Fox News read, "Your association with The Post gives you a large platform and may bring you a blue checkmark and added followers. Along with that comes our collective responsibility to protect that integrity and reputation. This guidance applies to content you post or amplify – such as in a retweet, like or share – on any digital platform."
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The Washington Post's outspoken tech columnist Taylor Lorenz has also faced sharp criticism for her reporting methods this year, and Amber Heard's 2018 Post op-ed about Johnny Depp was found to be defamatory in June.