NY Anchorman Resigns After Calling Live Show Under False Name

Gary Anthony Ramsay, an anchorman for NY1 News, has resigned this week over his efforts to damage Rudy Giuliani's bid for the White House by commenting on the Bernard Kerik situation under a false name on the air. It appears that Ramsay called into an episode of the station's call-in show "The Call" and claimed his name was "Dalton from the Upper East Side" before going off on his rant against Giuliani associate Kerik. Looks like Mr. Ramsay couldn't keep his journalistic integrity in force long enough to give his own name and stand by his own opinion and it has cost him his TV job.

Labeling his Nov. 19th call-in segment "a flash moment of frustration," Ramsay let his emotions get the better of him.

Mr. Ramsay phoned “The Call,” an evening call-in show, and identified himself as Dalton, from the Upper East Side. The topic was Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner facing a 16-count federal indictment, and the indictment’s effect on the presidential campaign of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

“So which is the real Bernie Kerik?” Mr. Ramsay asked on the show. “Is it the one who pleads not guilty before or is it the one who pleads guilty after he cuts a deal that he’s comfortable with?”

Ramsay told reporters that he was sitting at home watching the show and got "frustrated" with the callers' comments. What struck him the most was that some callers thought this Kerik mess was instigated by Hillary Clinton operatives.

Of his lack of journalistic ethics here, Ramsay said:

“I am continually apologetic for smudging that journalistic line, but I’m a human being, and I’m subject to the same frailties,” Mr. Ramsay said.

Apparently Ramsay was upset that the station didn't give him a position he had applied for and his contract was about up anyway, so Ramsay used this episode as his cue to exit the station at which he worked for 15 years.

What ever the case, Ramsay admits that he made a "lapse in judgment." But, here is the thing; who could have a problem with a journalist who lays his opinion on the line for all to see honestly? At least that way he's honestly presenting himself as a partisan. The main problem is that he tried to hide his opinion behind an assumed name, pretending he was someone else.

But, since he has revealed himself as a good left leaning partisan, who can doubt that he'll easily land a new TV gig?