A TV reporter caught on film being rescued from a puddle by townspeople in Mexico has been fired for apparently caring more about her shoes than the story she was there to cover.

Lydia Cummings, 24, was in the city of Puebla in central Mexico in late June when she was photographed getting ferried over a flooded street by a man and a woman.

She can be seen with her arms wrapped around both of their shoulders, clutching a microphone in one hand and a pink cellphone in the other, as the two townspeople hoisted her up from her legs, with their feet completely submerged in the murky floodwater.

The picture went viral almost instantly with the hashtag #LadyReportera and became the subject of dozens of hilarious memes.

She was Photoshopped on top of a white horse, into a Titanic scene and being drunkenly carried out of a Tequila bar, complete with a sombrero and a bottle of Jose Cuervo.

She was given the face of Jesus Christ in another, and was part of a winning soccer team celebrating their victory. She was criticised online for acting like a “Princessa” and being too concerned with her presumably expensive shoes and clothes.

The station she works for, Azteca Puebla, got wind of the photo and fired the reporter, tweeting a statement saying she was disrespectful to the people of the community and will no longer be a part of the Azteca Puebla team.

Minutes later, Cummings posted a video apology on Twitter, saying she takes full responsibility for the photo.

“The photos posted lack professionalism and tact. All we wanted to do was help and now we’ve created negativity,” Cummings said.

She told a local newspaper the couple offered to carry her and she was scared it would be rude to decline.

“I try to maintain a relationship of empathy with people and was afraid of sounding rude if I refused the favour. I was [carried] two seconds and then asked them to put me [down],” she told El Pais.

The reporter said she still has high hopes for a career in journalism, and hopes to get her feet wet again — or for the first time.

“Despite the bitter pill, I want to be a journalist. I love this profession, I have covered several floods, which I [got] wet and never cared. After all this [settles] down a little [I will] keep looking for opportunities,” Cumming told El Pais.

“[Social networks] can work in your favour or against you and [can] change from one to another in seconds. I must be more careful and be more aware of what is shared in my network.”

This article originally appeared on The New York Post.