A popular New York news anchor has been fired from his post after he was caught on a hot mic calling his Black co-anchor a c*nt, according to Page Six.
On Monday, the publication reported that a source tipped them off about the news of Ken Rosato’s “immediate” firing from Eyewitness News This Morning, a daily news program that airs at 6am New York local time. According to the source, Rosato was off the air when he called Shirleen Allicot the c-word, but because the mic was on, the slur was picked up “on an open mic.” He was immediately axed.
An ABC spokesperson responded to Page Six’s request for comment with “No comment.”
Meanwhile, a representative for the ex-ABC anchor neither confirmed nor denied that his client referred to Allicot as the c-word.
“Being fired for any racial slur is 100 percent inaccurate and untrue. Ken Rosato had a benchmark of 20 years at WABC of supporting all equality,” the representative told Page Six Friday.
The network said that it would not reveal what Rosato said or did when news broke that he was leaving the network. He had been anchoring the show with Allicot, Heather O’Rourke and meteorologist Sam Champion and has been an anchor with the network since 2007.
Rosato began his career as a reporter in New York in 2002 and spent time as an anchor in Florida markets before coming back to New York.
WABC has yet to make an official announcement about Rosato’s exit, but the network’s general manager did state via email that he “is no longer with WABC.”
“We thank him for his years of service,” the email read.
At the time of this writing, Rosato’s biography and photo have been removed from the network’s website and his Twitter account has since been deleted.
