*ABC7’s Ken Rosato was “immediately fired” after he allegedly called fellow co-anchor, Shirleen Allicot a “c**t” on a hot mic.
Initially, it was believed that he had made a racist comment, but his agent denied this. Rosato was off-air when he uttered the offensive c-word, the New York Post reports.
“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,” Rosato’s rep said in a statement.
According to The Post, the general manager at the news station sent staffers a memo Friday informing them that Rosato was “no longer with WABC”.
According to the Daily Mail, Rosato started with ABC New York in 2003 as a freelance reporter before moving to the anchor desk in 2007. He co-anchored the morning program with Allicot, Heather O’Rourke, and meteorologist Sam Champion.
Rosato’s history with the company has been scrubbed from ABC New York’s website and social media. As the Daily Mail reports, the network did a profile on him in September 2020, which has also been removed.
During the interview, Rosato gushed about the moment he was asked to lead ABC New York’s news program.
“I was a full-time freelance reporter, I had a chance to fill-in anchoring. The ratings spiked. The ratings spiked,” he explained.
“Then I was told: ‘We are offering you a new contract. You are our new morning anchor.’ Which was the moment I dreamed about for about 20 years and it came true,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
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