-By Warner Todd Huston
Remember this one about New York One TV’s anchorman, Gary Anthony Ramsay?
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.
Well, he has sent me a nice little email letting me know just how wrong I was. He does make one great mistake in his email, however. He assumes I am a “reporter.” I have never claimed to be a “reporter.” I am an essayist and editorialist. I do not “report the news” as Mr. Ramsay imagines. I talk about the issues of the day and mean my efforts to support my ideological positions on the news. I make no claims to be a “reporter,” nor has Mr. Ramsay ever heard of or read that I have made such a claim
In any case, without further adieu and in the interest of fair play, here is Mr. Ramsay’s letter to me:
Mr.Huston.
This is Gary Anthony Ramsay, the ex NY1 anchor who left the station after the incident you described in your article. Its an article NOT a report since it seems clear to me that you didn’t really do any reporting on this matter yourself. You just cut and pasted it into your cute little “look real” journal. It also seems clear that you did not hear the clip of the exchange between me and the host. But like the true modern day journalist you claim to be, you just ran with what you saw someone else write, didn’t make any phone calls yourself or double check facts.
There lies the base of my anger. Nowadays it seems that if you tell a lie long enough and loud enough people take it for truth. Which was what was happening on that show before I called.
A- I was not trying to damage Rudy Giuliani bid to become President. That is your opinion and you have no facts to make that claim. If you did your research to see what my politics were, you would be surprised to see which party carries my voters card. That is public information but you aren’t a real reporter so I guess that’s beyond your range of expertise.
B- It was not a crank call…..ill advised YES, but all I did was express information that was already in the public domain. Yes I used the word ridiculous when describing the belief that Hillary Clinton could influence Alberto Gonzales to go after Bernie Kerik and that she influenced Kerik to take money from a mobbed up company ten years ago so that she could get Rudy today. If I said “its ridiculous” to believe in the tooth fairy or it’s ridiculous to think men can give birth” few people would argue that. The facts…. not conjecture or opinion support my use of the word.
C- I was not upset about someone getting a job at NY1 that I wanted. You couldn’t even cut and paste that one right out of the Times. I was near the top of the NY1 food chain and was going no further. I made up my mind to leave that place over a year ago. Was this the way I wanted to go….of course not. But sitting at home watching our show was my mistake. I should have been watching something else since I should have known what to expect. I am not an operative for the Clintons.. I am an operative for the truth.
What I am tired of is seeing all the noise that has been created in the world of gathering and presenting information. Noise like your article. Not one piece of real journalism in it. But you get to pass it off as fact to your equally “enlightend” readers. This garble and the lame efforts of real journalists to stop it, is what was the root of my now infamous phone call. The same garble that has this nation in the kind of denial and trouble I thought we left behind in the 70’s. So feel free to CUT & PASTE this badly as well. I’m sure you’ve become an expert by now
GAR
Interesting, is it not?
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston