A reporter says she was fired from the Dallas Morning News over what she thought was an innocent tweet directed at Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, D.
Meghan Mangrum, an education journalist who joined the Dallas newspaper in August 2022, took to Twitter on February 11 in response to a tweet from Johnson, who accused the local media of not covering favorable stats which shows a reduction in violent crime in recent years. .
“And as we’ve seen recently, if police work or crime stories don’t make a particular narrative, the national media has no interest in them.” chaos with crime, the media won’t cover it,” Johnson wrote.
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“Bruh, national news is always going to run the motion,” Mangrum told the mayor in the now-deleted Saturday tweet. “Develop relationships with good local news partnerships. “
“Bruh? Have we met?” the Democratic mayor fired back.
Johnson’s chief of staff, Tristan Hallman, who was primarily an editor and reporter for the Dallas Morning News until he began working for the mayor in 2019, took an indirect swipe at Mangrum, who tweeting “Calling the mayor a ‘bruh’ is disrespectful. pro.”
Unbeknownst to Mangrum at the time, that “bruh” tweet would ultimately lead to her firing just three days later.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson hit the local media for what he thought was not enough coverage of falling crime stats in his city. (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
According to an interview with D Magazine, Mangrum said she was called by human resources for a meeting that Monday, where she faced a grilling from Dallas Morning News executive editor Katrice Hardy.
Hardy questioned whether there was a racial component to Mangrum’s use of the popular Twitter term “bruh” on Johnson, who is Black.
“Hardy, who is black, asked her if she would have used the word ‘bruh’ if the mayor was white. Mangrum, who is White, said yes. accounts, including those of hockey fans and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife,” wrote D Magazine.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Dallas Morning News for comment.
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Mangrum told the magazine, “I would never tell a person of color, ‘Oh, it wasn’t racist. You shouldn’t feel that way’… But I know my intention, and it wasn’t about race at all. that word with my friends and when I tweet about hockey. It’s just part of my heritage. It grew I’m up in Central Florida, and, you know, I’m a millennial.”
The next morning, Mangrum helped organize a union protest with Dallas Morning News colleagues over longtime issues. Later that day, he was shot.
Meghan Mangrum and Mayor Eric Johnson.
Mangrum was told she had violated the paper’s social media policy but was not told specifically how her tweet violated it.
In the interview, Mangrum defended her “bruh” tweet.
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“He was going after the local media for their crime coverage,” Mangrum told the magazine, “and I saw some of my colleagues responding to him, tweeting stories that the Dallas Morning News did, saying, “Hey, Mr. Mayor, you know this isn’t fair at all.”
“Standing up for my colleagues and the work we do, when I know we are doing a good and honest job, is something I am proud of and something that I’m looking for my colleagues and my workplace too,” she said.
Dallas Morning News Building (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
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In a statement to D Magazine, the Dallas Guild News said it filed an unfair labor complaint against DallasNews Corporation with the National Labor Relations Board over Mangrum’s firing.
Mangrum told D Magazine that she is moving back to her parents’ house in Florida until she can find another job.
Neither Mangrum nor Johnson’s office immediately responded to Fox News’ requests for comment.
