[Warning: Highly offensive language] The radio presenter is unrepentant despite the backlash his words have provoked.
Sirius XM has announced that Anthony Cumia has been fired after the former host sent out a string of foul-mouthed, abusive and racially-directed tweets. Cumia's tirade began after he was allegedly punched by a black woman in New York.
Breaking: "Opie & Anthony" host @AnthonyCumia fired from SiriusXM after racist Twitter rant http://t.co/kPzvkbEay1 pic.twitter.com/ccTofAaDML
— Rachel Zarrell (@rachelzarrell) July 4, 2014
The 53 year-old DJ, who co-presents the Opie and Anthony Show, claims he had been taking photos of the city at night and the unnamed woman happened to be in a few of them. He alleges that she thought he was specifically taking photos of her and attacked him.
The radio host said that he held his arms up to defend himself but did not deliberately escalate the violence. Instead of reporting the incident, Cumia took to Twitter and fired out a string of furious, abusive tweets directed not only at the woman, but at all black people whilst using photos he had taken of the woman whilst she was hitting him.
"Great pic of the C**TRAG b***h f**k animal pig face worthless meat sack s**t pile stink crotch ass stain rot bung..." he captioned the first blurry photo he posted. Calling the woman a "savage," Cumia continued to rant about the incident whilst angrily defending himself from those who called out his highly offensive terminology.
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"Then she punched me 5 more times," he tweeted, adding "She's lucky I was a white legal gun owner or she'd be dead. Then 5 blacks started giving me s**t!" Cumia argued that the alleged assailant sparked a race war by calling him a "white mother****r" and that that gave him licence to post videos and news stories highlighting violence committed by people of colour.
Meanwhile, observers shocked by the escalating social media situation mounted a mass petition against Cumia and his station by posting screenshots of their SiriusXM cancellation confirmations.
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"SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel," Patrick Reilly, senior vice president of communications for the company, said in a statement today. Reilly said Cumia was fired late Thursday "after careful consideration of his racially charged and hate-filled remarks on social media."
The unrepentant host announced his firing via Twitter, writing "Sirius decided to cave and fire me. Welcome to bizarro world. Fired for s**t that wasn't even on the air & wasn't illegal. So, who's next?"
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