TV Azteca Fires Lydia Cumming #LadyReportera for Flood Photo

by July 30, 2016 04:00 AM EST

Mexico City (Credit: Alejandro Islas Photograph AC/Wikipedia)

Mexican TV News TV Azteca fired Lydia Cumming, now known for the #LadyReportera hashtag. The #LadyReportera hashtag started after a photo circulated that showed Cumming, reporting for the station on floods in Puebla, being carried by locals through the flood waters.

Cumming told news outlet El Pais that she was sent to cover the heavy rains but didn’t have “proper clothing and equipment.” A resident asked Cumming and her cameraman to go speak with his godfather, she said. Cumming said the resident and her husband offered to carry her through the water. She said she didn’t want to be rude so she agreed to the arrangement. After a few seconds, Cumming asked to be put down.

Cumming told iMediaEthics by e-mail she doesn’t “blame anyone” even though the incident was taken out of context. She reiterated that she was only carried for a second or two before she was put down, yet she was still accused of a lack of professionalism.

The photo was posted on Facebook, and then she was fired.

She told El Universal, via Google Translate, “There was no intention to humiliate them or make them feel bad, it was so fast and without malice.”

Ojalá así te aferraras a nuestro amor #LadyReportera pic.twitter.com/Y5gqVqKoZx

— Mylo Brizuela (@MyloBrizuela) June 29, 2016

TV Azteca’s Puebla station apologized in a statement posted on Twitter. (TV Azteca pointed iMediaEthics to that statement.) “Respect is a fundamental value,” the TV station said, adding that its employees must “respect all people.” The station criticized Cumming’s “lack of respect” toward the people she was covering and said “that’s why” Cumming was fired.