Everything that appears below was submitted to the NYABJ listserv on December 2, 2007. (I had to remove his links and provide the hyper-links below.) I know Gary and have met his wife, as I am a member of NYABJ. This is an unfortunate incident, and I wish Gary the best as he moves on in his career.
Hello folks
In the wake of yet another “mean spirited” and certainly non
journalistic piece in New York Magazine about what happend with me @
NY1, I decided to write you all this note. First of all — I am fine.
Of course that is not the way I planned to leave but as we all know not
everything goes according to plan.
The Daily News piece, written by a guy who hasn’t covered a real news
story in a long time is off the mark. It was leaked by a person from
NY1 who knew two things. 1) The DN writer would not work that hard to
get the facts. 2) The DN writer hates the station and by his own
admission doesn’t even really watch. But given the selacious false
info, it would do the most damage. (Remember “Absence of Malice” &
“The Paper”).
I, as journalist had a human moment. I did not make a “CRANK” call and
anyone who heard it would not describe it so. I was tired of hearing
bad information and conjecture being repeated and unchecked on this show
of ours. It is the process that turns lies into truth. Having covered
the story and knowing what the facts were, I mistakenly picked up the
phone.
Was it worth it? Absolutely not. But I hope you can at least understand the genesis of why.
Below is the NY Times version of what happended.
NY1 Anchor Quits After Calling a Show on the Station Under a False Name
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Published: November 18, 2007
Gary Anthony Ramsay, a longtime reporter and a weekend anchor for NY1
News, left the station this week, days after calling in to one of the
channel’s live shows under a false name and commenting on a news
story, a lapse in judgment that Mr. Ramsay described as “a flash
moment of frustration.”
On Nov. 9, 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?”
In an interview last night, Mr. Ramsay said he was at his Upper West
Side home watching the program, when he became frustrated with some
viewers’ comments, including those who said they believed that
supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
had a role in the
investigation.
He said that had he been on a reporters’ roundtable, his comments
would have been the same, and that he felt that he was not giving his
opinion so much as correcting information that was “inaccurate and
unchecked.” But he said that his failure to identify himself crossed
a line of journalistic ethics.
“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.
Steve Paulus, NY1’s general manager, declined to comment about Mr.
Ramsay’s phone call. He said that the station did not ask Mr. Ramsay
to leave, but that Mr. Ramsay’s contract had expired and he had
voluntarily decided to move on. “He’s been with us since the
beginning, and after 15 years, he was ready for a move,” Mr. Paulus
said.
Mr. Ramsay said John Schiumo, the show’s host, had called him after
the show and told him that he recognized his voice. Mr. Ramsay said he
apologized to Mr. Schiumo, and added that he had never deceived viewers
or his sources while reporting a story. “What disturbs me is that
this lapse in judgment ?and that’s what you can call it, a lapse
in judgment ? is going to undo more than 15 years of hard-charging,
quality journalism in New York and abroad,” he said.
Mr. Ramsay joined NY1 in 1992, when the station first went on the air,
and covered a range of stories, including the 1993 and 2001 attacks on
the World Trade Center and the war in Iraq. He is the president of the
New York Association of Black Journalists, and has received numerous
awards from industry groups, including the Radio and Television News
Directors Association.
Mr. Ramsay said he decided to leave NY1 last summer as his contract
neared its end this year, and the station had asked him to stay on a
while longer. His last day at the station was Thursday. His departure
was reported in yesterday’s Daily News.
Mr. Ramsay’s on-air exchange with Mr. Schiumo lasted a little more
than one minute.
“First of all, John, I have to take a disagreement with you,”
Mr. Ramsay said during the call.
“Me? I haven’t given my opinion,” Mr. Schiumo replied.
“When you say that it’s allegedly,” Mr. Ramsay said,
referring to the charges against Mr. Kerik. “He’s already pled
guilty to a number of these same charges in state court. So he’s
already admitted to some wrongdoing regarding these particular
items.” Mr. Ramsay went on to say that it was “ridiculous”
for another viewer to imply that “the Hillary camp” had a hand
in the effort to prosecute Mr. Kerik.
One of Mr. Ramsay’s friends described him as frustrated that day
because he had learned that another reporter had gotten a job for which
he had applied. Mr. Ramsay denied that that played a part in his
decision to call the show.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is certainly a lesson for me as to what can happen if we are not
careful in our jobs and what kind of damage can be created. I am shocked and saddend by some of the things that have since been said about me and my character. WOW. It is also
a reminder of the two sets of standards that remain in this buisness. I
have never plagerized or fabricated a story, made donations to any
political party, or other things that could be considered really
catastrophic. But again I should have never picked up the phone.
I knew they we have a different load to bear and have to live up to a
higher standard. This is what we tell our young people everyday and I
apologize for forgetting that for 90 Seconds of my 20 year career. I
hope that you can forgive me for letting down my guard and letting you
down. I hope that one day I can be afforded the grace of another
opportunity to serve the people and journalism with the same passion and
enthusiasm I gave my entire career.
Gary Anthony Ramsay
Comment(s)
I’m wishing Gary all the best as he deals with this in such a brave and straightforward way. These life events that try the soul can lead to growth, personal and professional.
Ron Howell
Comment(s)
A luta continua indeed. This from journalist Audrey Edwards, a founding member of NYABJ:
*****
Below is the reconstituted comment on your Gary Anthony Ramsay blog. Thank you for offering to post if for me.–AE
Eisa,
I want to say how much I love getting your informative blogs now that I’m living in Paris. They give me such a valuable perspective on the goings on Stateside–most recently the story surrounding Gary Anthony Ramsay’s departure from NY1. As a founding member of the New York Association of Black Journalists, I was struck by a couple of things in the reporting of this story: 1) Gary’s presidency of NYABJ was the first thing mentioned in the Daily News story I read, and 2) his phone call to the station of the talk show discussing Bernard Kerik was labeled a “crank.” The slant of the story was clearly a malicious attempt to both malign an organization of Black journalists and to characterize a reporter’s legitimate questions on a call-in show as the irrational ranting of a “crank.” Interestingly, the story I read gave no particulars as to what Gary actually said. Apparently, simply making the call constituted a crank.
I appreciate Gary taking the time to clear the air about what happened and to take responsibility for what he called a “lapse in judgement” in making the call. Of course, we know of others who have lapses in judgement all the time without questionable news stories reporting it or careers being derailed. I’m currently living in a country where such a lapse occurred just last week when two African teenagers living in one of Paris’s ghettoized suburbs were run over and killed by two policemen. In what appeared to be a childish game of “chicken,” the teenagers were racing across an intersection on their motor scooters as a police car came barreling down on them in the other direction. Instead of slowing down, the car sped up, a fatal “lapse in judgment” on the part of the cops that led to two kids dying and a furious riot ensuing. Over 80 cops were sent to the hospital, the French government freaked out, the press went wild, yet at no time did anyone take responsibility for this particular lapse in judgement or even say it was “wrong,” though it certainly proved deadly.
What’s most interesting about living in another European culture is seeing how issues of race and class, power and influence have global connections. African-American struggles in the States match other struggles throughout the Diaspora. I’ve always known this intellectually, now I’m witnessing it firsthand. It has been sobering and instructive, to say the least.
A luta continua,
Audrey Edwards