Ed Morrissey: Free Market Consequences for Despicable Speech

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

For years, the Left claimed that cancel culture was merely consequences for bad speech. Now that the free market has applied the same rules to them over their celebrations of political assassination, they’re trying to claim victimhood.

The latest example comes from former Washington Post editor Karen Attiah who got fired this week over her social media posts after Charlie Kirk’s murder. Attiah had modified and misrepresented Kirk’s words in her Bluesky posts in order to make him look like a bigot.

It was journalistic fraud, done to imply that Kirk had it coming. It should not come as a shock that a newspaper would want to part ways with her.

In other words: Welcome to the consequences of your own actions … and welcome to the precedents the Left has set for years for punishing its opponents. If you publicly celebrate or condone a political assassination, don’t be surprised if your employers and clients want to distance themselves.

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