Opie and Anthony is one of the most ubiquitous radio shows around, but that may all be changing. After Anthony Cumia posted a series of racist tweets following an incident in New York City, Sirius announced this morning that they have fired the host.
In a statement, Sirius said:
“SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel. The decision was made, and Cumia informed, late Thursday, July 3 after careful consideration of his racially-charged and hate-filled remarks on social media. Those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents.”
Cumia responded in kind this morning on Twitter, posting the following series of tweets:
Sirius decided to cave and fire me. Welcome to bizarro world. Fired for shit that wasn't even on the air & wasn't illegal. So, who's next?
After the wkend, I'll have a better idea of things. Fuck Sirius. I'll pop on the Compound show next week and discuss this with TOTAL FREEDOM
The entire incident that started the firestorm occurred on Wednesday night, when Cumia got into some sort of dustup with an African-American woman in Time Square. It seems Cumia was taking pictures of New York City, and the woman thought he was photographing her without her permission. This led to an argument, which then led to the woman punching Cumia in the face.
Obviously angry and upset, Cumia unleashed a barrage of tweets that most would consider racist. A sampling:
It's really open season on white people in this day and age. No recourse. Fight back and you're a racist. The predators know this. Good luck
There's a deep seeded problem with violence in the black community. Try to address it and you'll be exiled to racistville. But it's real.
The cunt animal kept walking into my arm I had up as a block saying "DONT TOUCH ME!" Then would hit me. I hope a home boy beats her to death
And honestly, those are some of the more tame ones.
In any case, it’s probably for the best that Cumia not be on the airwaves for a while. Somehow, we don’t think he’s going to be able to talk himself out of this one.
[via THR]
