Dallas Reporter: I Was Fired for Calling the Mayor ‘Bruh’ on Twitter

A reporter says she was fired by her paper after calling the mayor of Dallas “bruh” on Twitter, a remark the information outlet claimed violated its social media coverage.

Meghan Mangrum, now previously a reporter for The Dallas Morning Information, despatched out what she thought was a innocent however agency tweet standing as much as Mayor Eric Johnson, D Journal reported. In mid-February, Johnson slammed local and national media outlets for not reporting on the lower in violent crime within the metropolis. A rise in violent crime in Dallas, the mayor acknowledged, would definitely be lined.

“Our native media have little interest in reporting on this knowledge, which is why you haven’t heard about it,” Johnson tweeted on Feb. 11. “And as we’ve seen not too long ago, if policing or crime tales don’t feed into a specific narrative, the nationwide media has zero curiosity in them. If it doesn’t feed into our worst tribal instincts or present a metropolis devolving into violent crime-ridden chaos, the media is not going to cowl it.”

Mangrum noticed the mayor’s tweet, in addition to tweets from her colleagues contradicting him, whereas on the way in which to a hockey sport and determined to chime in.

“Bruh, nationwide information is at all times going to chase the pattern. Domesticate relationships with high quality native information partnerships,” Mangrum stated in a now-deleted tweet.

The mayor was not amused.

“Bruh? Have we met?” Johnson responded. In a subsequent tweet, he added: “Gotta love when people let their inherent biases present. I get to be addressed as ‘bruh’ by somebody who writes for my each day native paper whom I’ve by no means met.”

Mangrum is at present with out a job and shifting again to her dad and mom’ home in Florida. She informed D Journal that her tweet had been an try to face up for her colleagues.

“Standing up for my colleagues and the work that we do, after I know we’re doing good and sincere work, is one thing I pleasure myself on and one thing that I search for in my colleagues and in my office as properly,” Mangrum stated.

The Dallas Information Guild, the Morning Information’ union, has filed a criticism with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board protesting Mangrum’s firing. The union believes Mangrum’s firing was meant to “trigger a chilling impact on the bargaining unit,” which is within the technique of negotiating a brand new contract.

The Morning Information wasn’t too keen on Mangrum’s “bruh” remark, both. She was known as into a gathering by the outlet’s govt editor Katrice Hardy, who’s Black, days later and requested if she would have used the phrase “bruh” if the mayor was white. Mangrum, who’s white, stated she would have, as reported by D Journal.

Certainly, Mangrum has used “bruh” to talk to all types of individuals on Twitter, together with fellow hockey followers, D reported. Nonetheless, she informed D Journal it wasn’t her place to find out whether or not folks took her remark as a racist comment, though she clarified that it was not her intent.

“I’d by no means inform an individual of colour, ‘Oh, it wasn’t racist. You shouldn’t really feel that method,’” Mangrum stated. “However I do know my intent, and it was under no circumstances about race. I take advantage of that phrase with my pals and after I tweet about hockey. It’s simply a part of my vernacular. I grew up in Central Florida, and, you recognize, I’m a millennial.”

Someday later, after organizing and taking part in a union protest towards the Morning Information, Mangrum was fired and informed she had violated the outlet’s social media coverage. She claims she was not informed what particular a part of the coverage she violated.

Hardy informed Gizmodo in an electronic mail that the paper didn’t touch upon personnel issues.