Kobe Bryant death: WaPo journalist suspended for tweet on NBA star's 'controversial past' hours after he died
Washington Post journalist Felicia Sonmez has been suspended after she shared a link to an old story headlined 'Kobe Bryant’s Disturbing Rape Case: The DNA Evidence, the Accuser’s Story, and the Half-Confession.’ It documented Kobe Bryant's rape case. The link was posted hours after the NBA legend died in a chopper crash. The (now-deleted) tweet generated thousands of comments, which included death threats as well.
In a series of tweets (which only exist as screengrabs now), Felicia defended her stance on sharing the tweet hours after Kobe's passing. She wrote that everyone deserves to be known in "totality." She also went ahead and called out those who threatened her adding that she now understands why people go silent in such cases.
"If your response to a news article is to resort to harassment and intimidation of journalists, you might want to consider that your behavior says more about you than the person you’re targeting," Daily Mail quoted Felicia's deleted tweet.
All of these tweets were deleted owing to a massive backlash by Kobe's fans, who trended #FireFeliciaSonmez on Twitter.
"A much loved athlete and his daughter was dead but a few hours when a vulture journalist thought it would be ok to harass his family with 3 year old unproven allegations. This sort of behavior is reprehensible #firefeliciasonmez," a user pointed out, while another shared: "@washingtonpost suspended???? Nah not good enough. Fire her. Felicia knowingly shared a story of a rape case involving Kobe Bryant that has long been settled, right after he and his daughter died. All for attention. #FireFeliciaSonmez."
"#firefeliciasonmez what a disgusting thing to do. A man lost his life. His daughter also. Not to mention his other children lost their father and sister, and his wife lost her husband and daughter. It's people like you that make me sick. What kind of soulless thing are you!??," another user expressed.
Kobe and his daughter Gianna were among the 9 killed in the chopper crash at the Calabasas Mountains on Sunday.
