Anthony, of Opie and Anthony, looooong time radio host and hugely successful in syndication/satellite, was punched in the face in Times Square. His assaulter then went on to bring in some buddies to escalate the situation and Anthony, quite understandably, was upset. He tweeted that his assaulter a “pig” and a “savage” (and worse as you will see below) saying it “validated” his beliefs – whatever that means. (BTW: He’s fine. He’ll fully recover, quickly, and without any other intervention but time, but he was fired; he was fired for his Twitter rant afterwards.)
Even worse, this radio host, with a devoted, even cult-like following, issued what could arguably be described as a “call to action.” A “call to action” is very familiar to anyone who has ever read ad copy into a microphone – as Anthony has. It’s when you say “Call now!” “Come in now” etc. The call to ACTION. Well, Anthony, in one of his tweets, said he “hoped” his assaulter got “shot & killed.”
Oh dear.
And… remarkably… It gets WORSE.
Consider: He said all this after he got home, with time having passed, with sufficient time for contemplation and reflection, and the ability to choose not to sit down at his computer and tweet all this. He chose to tweet all of his anger AFTER contemplation. Had he done it laying on the sidewalk waiting for the cops, one could forgive him. But he didn’t. He didn’t do it on an impulse. He did it after sufficient time to make a purposeful, rational choice. His anger was completely justified. But, having had time to choose any number of a hundred ways to deal with it, he chose the most public and most crude.
Unfortunately for him, his assaulter was a black woman. Her buddies were black. And the language & the sentiments he chose to make public should be offensive to ANYONE. No matter WHAT happened or how righteous his anger at being assaulted.
I’ve signed radio contracts. I’m not a big cheese like Anthony, but I’ve been in the neighborhood and I can tell you those contracts, as mine did, included “morals” clauses and other clauses related to my public conduct. As a “public figure” my job was to preserve the brand of the entity I was contracted with. Spewing racial anger on Twitter is not good for the brand…
Sorry Anthony.
You deserved to get canned. You had time to go home, get home, grab a beverage, sit down, turn on the computer, and think. And you CHOSE, after all that, to spew. Publicly.
You should have known better.
Again – Sorry, big guy.
Story, from The Hollywood Reporter, below.
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‘Opie and Anthony’ Host Goes on Racist Tirade
Opie and Anthony host Anthony Cumia has gone on an offensive Twitter tirade after he claimed a woman attacked him in Times Square.
The incident sparked a racist rant from the SiriusXM DJ, who said on Tuesday that he was taking photos of New York City when an African-American woman, who was in his frame, punched him in the face. The woman said she did not want to have her picture taken, according to Cumia.
“Then she punched me 5 more times. She’s lucky I was a white legal gun owner or she’d be dead. Then 5 blacks started giving me shit!” the 53-year-old host tweeted.
Cumia proceeded to angrily rant on Twitter throughout the night and on into Wednesday morning, posting photos of the woman that he took during the altercation, calling her an “animal bitch,” a “c—,” a “savage” and saying that he hopes she gets shot.
“The switch to violence is immediate. No discussion, just violence. When will THAT be addressed? Oh, right, never. Slavery did it? Oh, ok,” he wrote.
Cumia claimed that he wasn’t hurt by the woman’s blows and managed to block most of them.
He later wrote that the incident ended with him walking away since there were “no cop around” to stop the situation.
He also claimed that it was “open season on white people … no recourse at all. Fight back and you’re a racist.”
Cumia later lashed out at media outlets who called his tweets “racist,” saying that the woman called him a “white motherf—er.” He wrote, in part, “I was assaulted and used ‘mean’ words on twitter and I’M the bad guy in all this?? Lol!” and “The 1st words out of her dumb ass mouth after punching me in the head were ‘white motherf—er’ but I’m the racist here? Bizarro land!”
This isn’t the first time Opie and Anthony, which began in 1995 and features co-host Gregg “Opie” Hughes, has faced controversy. The show has been fined by the FCC twice. The first fine, for $21,000, covered broadcasts from 2000-01, which included a segment in which a 17-year-old girl was instructed to take off her panties and rub a telephone across her pubic area, as well as a song called “I’m Horny for Little Girls.”
A second 2004 fine saw Viacom — parent company of CBS Radio/Infinity-owned stations — pay $3.5 million to cancel all pending indecency claims against the show. At issue was a “Sex for Sam” contest in which people were encouraged to have sex in a public place.
SiriusXM did not immediately respond to request for comment.
See below for a selection of Cumia’s enraged comments and his response to being called “racist.”
It’s a jungle out in our cities after midnight. Violent savages own the streets. They all came 2 defend this pig. I had to yell like at dogs— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 2, 2014
I was using my arms to block her punches. As I did, she’d yell “DONT TOUCH ME!” As she punched more! I really hope she gets shot & killed
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 2, 2014
All good. Vision in right eye is back to normal. It more pissed me off than anything. Validated my beliefs.
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 2, 2014
My posts on twitter after I was assaulted were profanity laced indeed but racist? Nope. Why should I afford my attacker any courtesy? Insane
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 3, 2014
Reverends & pastors all over the US have rallies, marches & vigils against violence in black communities. I comment on it & I’m racist? Why?
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 3, 2014
When I’m being punched in the face, the thought that what I say may offend my attacker is pretty far down on the to do list.
— Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) July 3, 2014
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