(CNN) — “Opie & Anthony” has been cut in half.
Anthony Cumia, the “Anthony” portion of the shock-jock radio team, was fired by employer Sirius XM after Cumia made a series of racially charged tweets Wednesday night.
“SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the ‘Opie & Anthony’ channel,” Patrick Reilly, the satellite radio broadcaster’s media relations manager, said in a statement.
https://twitter.com/AnthonyCumia/status/485045848032546816
“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.”
According to Cumia, on Wednesday night he was taking pictures in Times Square when an African-American woman objected to being photographed. Cumia claims he was assaulted by the woman.
He let loose with a series of tweets, many with profane and inflammatory language. One called the woman an “animal pig face worthless meat sack” and worse.
He did not report the alleged assault to the police. When asked why by one person on Twitter, he responded, “Because I can take some punches w/out wasting the cops time.”
Cumia appeared to be caught by surprise by the firing.
“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?” he tweeted Friday morning.
It’s not the first time the duo has been in trouble. In 2003, a stunt called “Sex for Sam,” which involved people having sex in public places in exchange for prizes, got the pair canceled from New York’s WNEW.
