Washington Post hires social media coach for reporters after repeatedly landing themselves in hot water online

The Washington Post has hired a social media coach to train reporters after repeatedly landing themselves in hot water online.

Former USA Today audience editor Emma Grazado announced on Twitter Tuesday that she has joined the publication as its first-ever social media coach where she will work to grow “connections between reporters and audiences in this new role.”

The publication confirmed Grazado’s hiring in a press release, stating that she will be responsible for boosting “connections between our reporters and new audiences using social media” through group and individual training “on best practices for building trust, affinity and habit in the changing landscape of social platforms.”

THE WASHINGTON POST’S WEEK FROM HELL

The Post’s left-wing “internet culture” columnist Taylor Lorenz welcomed Grazado to the team, responding to her tweet with celebratory emojis.

The Post’s new focus on social media etiquette follows months of viral turmoil and a series of fiery tweetstorms between reporters, which led to the termination of an employee who spent days tarnishing the publication’s reputation online.

In June 2022, the Washington Post fired its reporter Felicia Sonmez after she waged war against the paper and her colleagues in a barrage of irate Twitter rants for nearly an entire week.

In what quickly turned into a series of embarrassing headlines for the publication, Felicia went after fellow Post reporter Dave Weigel, who has since left the paper, for retweeting a joke critics deemed sexist while also putting the paper on blast. 

“Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!,” Sonmez tweeted at the time

 Sonmez’s tweetstorms berating her colleagues persisted and began receiving public pushback from at least two colleagues, reporters Jose A. Del Real and Lisa Rein, who Sonmez also then attacked.

WASHINGTON POST FIRES FELICIA SONMEZ FOLLOWING DAYS OF TWEETSTORMS ATTACKING PAPER, COLLEAGUES

After Post boss Sally Buzbee urged staff to be respectful to one another, several prominent reporters expressed solidarity with the paper, all of whom were mocked by Sonmez. 

Following six days of constant viral warfare towards colleagues and the Post, Sonmez was terminated. Weigel left later that year and joined new media venture, Semafor.

In October, The Post’s Lorenz publicly went after her coworker Helaine Olen in a scathing tweet after she suggested that a conversation should be had about people still overly paranoid about the pandemic more than two years later.

Lorenz, who has a history of on attacking reporters and commentators online for allegedly minimizing the threat of the coronavirus, responded to Olen’s tweet a day later calling it “absurd” and “insensitive” to COVID victims and the immunocompromised.

Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz published a piece decrying Twitter’s new COVID-19 policy.
(Ding Ting/Xinhua via AP/MSNBC)

“What an absurd, insensitive thing to post. Thousands are dying per week, millions are disabled & we have zero effective drugs that prevent infection. Immunocompromised ppl don’t deserve condescending comments abt being ‘too afraid’ of a virus that can kill or severely disable us,” Lorenz tweeted before she deleted her response, then reposted it again.”

A month later, Lorenz went off at her employer on Twitter in response to an article written by her colleague about China’s record number of coronavirus cases in the country.

The article seemingly hit a nerve for Lorenz, who responded with an extended Twitter rant praising China’s authoritarian COVID lockdowns and accusing the U.S. of killing “millions of vulnerable people” by reopening the country.

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In June, The Washington Post released an updated social media policy for colleagues interacting on Twitter. The policy emphasized that Post journalists be “civil” to others and not compromise the paper’s integrity.

“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.”

Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.