MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

'I feel humiliated': Journo Breanna Muir slams colleague for misidentifying her as Breonna Taylor

'My name is NOT Breonna Taylor, the Black woman who was murdered in 2020. My name is Breanna Muir, the Black woman who has dedicated 4 years of her life to the Washington Post,' read Muir's post

Journalist Breanna Muir has called out her colleague Micah Gelman for misidentifying her as Breonna Taylor. Muir, who is a video technician at The Washington Post, took to LinkedIn to express her feelings about the mix-up caused by Gelman, who is director of video and a senior editor at the newspaper.

"It's very disheartening that this is my first post on LinkedIn but I felt like I needed to stand up for myself. On Sunday, the Director of Video misidentified me as Breanna Taylor on Twitter. My name is NOT Breonna Taylor, the Black woman who was murdered in 2020. My name is Breanna Muir, the Black woman who has dedicated 4 years of her life to The Washington Post. I feel horrified and humiliated," read her post.

READ MORE

Bodies of two teens misidentified by Florida cops who then harvested the wrong girl's organs, claims lawsuit

Washington Post writer who staunchly criticized Saudi government 'cut to pieces' inside consulate in Turkey, police claim

"It has been difficult for me to explain to my Black parents that the Director of Video is referring to me as Breonna Taylor in public. This was the first time that I witnessed my Black mother and Black father cry. Although, Breonna and I share the same ethnicity, we are two different people. Please stop misidentifying people of color in the workplace. It is not okay and I'm not okay. I pray that these type of 'mix-ups' never happen to anyone. #washingtonpost #jeffbezos #breonnataylor #blacklivesmatter #racism," Muir's post concluded.

Muir shared a screenshot of Gelman's Twitter thread where he thanked his team for covering the war in Ukraine. "A thread of thanks for everyone @PostVideo working tirelessly to cover the war in Ukraine. @whitneyshefte has been in Kyiv for 6 weeks spending most nights in a bomb shelter with her colleagues. @wleaming is doing the same in the very dangerous Kharkiv near the Russian border," read the tweet.

While thanking the team working on The Washington Post's live shows, Gelman accidentally referred to Muir as Breanna Taylor. Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez took a screenshot of his mistake and tweeted, "Still flabbergasted at how the Post's director of video called a member of his own team Breanna Taylor instead of her actual name — Breanna Muir — in this thread of acknowledgments last night. Breanna is an incredibly talented journalist and friend. She deserves an apology."

Sonmez then tweeted Muir's post on her account and captioned it, "My colleague, Washington Post video journalist Breanna Muir, shared this powerful statement last night after the Post's director of video misidentified her as 'Breanna Taylor' in a Twitter thread. 'This was the first time that I witnessed my Black mother and Black father cry.'"

After realizing the error, Gelman deleted the tweet from his thread and tweeted an apology to Muir. "In a long thread last night thanking my staff for working exhaustive hours, I inadvertently misidentified Breanna Muir. I reached out to her to apologize and do so here now. We are all working extremely long hours and while this was not intentional, it should not have happened," Gelman's tweet read.