Red Apple Media’s 77WABC (WABC-AM) has suspended former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and canceled his daily talk show following his repeated attempts to discuss discredited claims about the 2020 presidential election, despite warnings against doing so.
WABC owner John Catsimatidis told Radio Ink, “We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election on 77WABC. We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning that he refuses not to talk about it. He left me no option. I suspended him.”
Catsimatidis added in an interview with the New York Times, “Look, I like [Giuliani] as a person, but you can’t do that. You can’t cross the line. My view is that nobody really knows but we had made a company policy. It’s over, life goes on.”
Rudy Giuliani, a prominent figure in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election results, has faced criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona and has been implicated in numerous lawsuits. Additionally, Giuliani is dealing with financial pressures from creditors, including owing $148 million in damages to two Georgia election workers, Wandrea ArShaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, after a defamation trial.
WABC, which aired Giuliani’s show every weekday and Sunday, offered him no salary but a share of advertising revenue, potentially impacting his income amidst ongoing legal battles.
As free speech dies so does democracy.
FYI There’s no right to free speech in the workplace.
When has absolute free speech existed in America and particularly in broadcasting? Giuliani was found personally liable in the Georgia $160 million dollar defamation lawsuit that apparently he has no ability/intention to pay. Allowing Giuliani to remain on the air make WABC subject to the same types of lawsuits that has cost Fox and Trump many millions and unlike Giuliani, WABC would be forced to pay a jury judgement or do an out of court settlement over a defamation lawsuit. I’m assuming that WABC doesn’t want to make those payouts.