Meghan Mangrum: Dallas reporter fired for calling mayor Eric Johnson 'bruh' on Twitter
DALLAS, TEXAS: A reporter for the Dallas Morning News was fired after an online altercation led her to allegedly address the mayor of Dallas as "bruh" on Twitter. Mayor Eric Johnson, 47, was complaining about the local media not covering improving crime rates in the city when reporter Meghan Mangrum, 31 pitched in the conversation.
"Our local media have no interest in reporting on this data, which is why you haven't heard about it," Johnson said in a tweet. "Bruh, national news is always going to chase the trend. Cultivate relationships with quality local news partnerships," responded Mangrum, who worked as an education reporter for the publication. However, her comment toward the Black Mayor made her a target of racist social media trolls despite the reporter claiming, "it was not at all about race," reported Daily Mail. Mangrum was fired three days after the online feud.
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Our local media have no interest in reporting on this data, which is why you haven’t heard about it. But you better believe if Dallas was leading the nation in violent crime INCREASES you’d be hearing about it daily. It’s sad, really. Kudos to @DallasPD and our residents!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/8qc8k6RuNl
— Mayor Eric L. Johnson (@Johnson4Dallas) February 11, 2023
Katrice Hardy, from D Magazine, covered Mangrum's story and questioned her during a meeting if she would have used that word even if the mayor had not been black. The reporter responded that she had addressed various types of people using "bruh" from "hockey fans" to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife" and that "its just part of her vernacular."
"I know my intent, and it was not at all about race. I use that word with my friends and when I tweet about hockey. It's just part of my vernacular. I grew up in Central Florida," she told the magazine. "I'm a millennial," she said. Later that day Mangrum was fired from her job and the reason was cited as a violation of the paper's social media policy. The former reporter even claimed she was not even told which part of her contract had she breached.
Following Mangrum addressing Johnson as "Bruh," he responded to her tweet by writing, "Bruh? Have we met?" Johnson responded to Mangrum and in a subsequent tweet added: "Gotta love when folks let their inherent biases show. I get to be addressed as 'bruh' by someone who writes for my daily local paper whom I've never met." Nevertheless, Mangrum explained in her defense that she only got involved because she wanted to support her colleagues who she thought had been unfairly chastised by the mayor.
"He was going after local media for their coverage of crime," Mangrum told D. "I saw some of my colleagues responding to him, tweeting out stories the Dallas Morning News has done, saying, 'Hey, Mr. Mayor, you know this isn't quite fair.''' "Standing up for my colleagues and the work that we do, when I know we're doing good and honest work, is something I pride myself on and something that I look for in my colleagues and in my workplace as well," the Floridian native added. The reporter claimed her mentor had told her career was starting to pick up. "Coming to a what historically has been one of the best newspapers in the country, it was a step up," she said. "And joining the Ed Lab team specifically was kind of a dream come true."