Profane Blogging Gets Washington Post Writer Fired

Posted on April 18, 2008

Washington Post journalist Michael Tunison was fired for blogging at Kissing Suzy Kolber, a humorous sports blog. Apparently, the Post was unhappy with the language Tunison used in the blog. Tunison used the pseudonym Christmas Ape while blogging and was fired not too long after revealing his journo job in this post where he says he works for a "dying medium."

Editor & Publisher posted this email from Tunison in a recent article.

"There was no conflict of interest between my writing for Kissing Suzy Kolber and my work for The Washington Post. The blog is not a journalistic endeavor and it is not something I was paid for until I revealed my identity. It is a humor blog about the NFL, whereas my job for the paper was to cover local news in a suburban county outside Washington, D.C. It is beat that has nothing to do with a professional football league.
"I also find it troubling that I was summarily fired for engaging in something that is core to the spirit of The Washington Post: full disclosure. Even if editors had a problem with the language used in the blog, they should have been able to respect that my goal was not to defame The Post, but to be forthcoming with my readers."

It certainly doesn't sound like the blog clashed with his Washington Post writing.

There's an update on the KSK blog called Ape Got Dooced. Dooced referring to when blogger Heather Armstrong was fired from her job in 2002 for writings in her blog Dooce.com.