Tweet About MAGA Hat Costs Reporter His Job

While many people were left seeing red over yet another mass shooting following the massacre in the Capital Gazette newsroom, one journalist reported on a different kind of red favored by supporters of President Trump—and now he's resigned because of it. Fox News reports that after the Annapolis shooting on Thursday, Conor Berry, a reporter for the Republican newspaper in Springfield, Mass., tweeted a photo of a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and wrote that the shooter had "dropped his #MAGA hat on newsroom floor before opening fire" (Fox has a screenshot of the since-deleted tweet).

Except that wasn't true, and Berry resigned from his job one day later. "Folks, My 21-year career as a 'journalist,' a fancy term that makes my skin crawl, frankly, came to a screeching halt yesterday with one stupid, regrettable tweet," he tweeted Friday. "Can't take it back; wish I could. My sincere apologies to all good, hardworking reporters and to POTUS supporters." The 49-year-old explained himself further to the Boston Globe. "It was a snarky, sarcastic, cynical remark, and there's nothing I can do to take it back," he says, adding he's sorry for such a tweet because it "feeds the warped minds of people who think we wake up every day and try to push an agenda." (More Capital Gazette shooting stories.)