A reporter who worked for NBC affiliate KTTC-TV in Minnesota was fired on Friday for sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat while covering a Trump rally.
Jim Bunner, one of the station's multimedia journalists, covered the Trump rally in Rochester, Minnesota on Thursday. While at the rally he wore a red MAGA hat and a jacket with the station's logo.
As of today Jim Bunner no longer works for KTTC (per phone conversation with @ADLavinsky). pic.twitter.com/O1hk94jdY7
— Mark Vancleave ??+?? (@MDVancleave) October 5, 2018
The very next day, Bunner was let go.
“He violated our policy so he’s no longer with us,” Noel Sederstrom, news director for KTTC, told BuzzFeed News. “We don’t allow our people to wear campaign clothing while on assignment.”
Bunner was active on social media and made his conservative leanings known. At one point he had an NRA banner on his profile picture and he even posted a video of himself dancing in the newsroom in celebration of President Trump's inauguration, BuzzFeed reported.
The photos of Bunner were taken by Mark Vancleave, a video journalist for Minneapolis' Star Tribune.
When Vancleave was asked why he shared the picture of Bunner, he said it's to hold journalists accountable for being objective, which is a "fundamental ethical standard."
1) Colleague not coworker.
— Mark Vancleave ??+?? (@MDVancleave) October 6, 2018
2) Because of responses like I've gotten here it's imperative that journalists do a better job of calling out our peers who aren't upholding fundamental ethical standards.
Bunner's Facebook page has either been deleted or made private. His phone number is not listed and he has not responded to multiple media outlets' request for comment.