In today’s world of social media, it’s valid to question how much of what we do is actually private, and that can be of particular concern when it’s vital to your job to keep your professional and personal lives separate. New York meteorologist Erick Adame had his two worlds collide, as he released a statement on Instagram to say that he had been fired from Spectrum News NY1 after his employer learned that he had appeared on an adult cam website.
The meteorologist had been employed with NY1 since 2017, per Deadline, but said he’s been “on television in the biggest market in the country in front of millions of people five days a week for more than a decade and a half.” In a lengthy message on his Instagram, Erick Adams said he hoped to control his own narrative about why he was “terminated” from his job. He said despite being a public figure, he had secretly appeared on an adult cam site, thinking he could keep this part of his life private. He stated:
On this site, I acted out my compulsive behaviors, while at home, by performing on camera for other men. It was 100% consensual on both of our parts. I wasn’t paid for this, and it was absurd of me to think I could keep this private. Nonetheless, my employer found out and I was suspended and then terminated.
As of this writing, the post had accumulated more than 4,200 “likes” and numerous messages from viewers saying they missed seeing him on the news and wondering why “a perfectly legal and personal activity [would] lead to dismissal.” Nonetheless, Erick Adame apologized to his former company, colleagues, friends and family, explaining that he was getting professional help for what he called “compulsive behavior.” However, other things he refused to be sorry for, he said:
As a public figure I recognize that I have certain responsibilities that come along with the privileges I enjoyed. But, let me be clear about something: I don’t apologize for being openly gay or for being sex-positive–those are gifts and I have no shame about them.
The weather man said this is a “horrible, humbling moment” as he begins to search for work, and he even took time to address potential employers in the hopes that this incident will not overshadow the years of work that endeared New York audiences to him. He said:
Please judge me on the hundreds, thousands of hours of television that I am so proud of and that my employers have always commended me for, and not the couple of minutes of salacious video that is probably going to soon define me in our ‘click-bait’ culture.
He ended by repeating how much he loved his job and being a part of the viewers’ lives for so many years. That must be a terribly hard thing to go through, not just having your personal business released to the world, but that ultimately costing you your job.
We’ve seen other instances where home life intersects with local media, including when a Washington meteorologist called his son live on the air when he realized there was a tornado near their house. And back in 2020, one reporter in Sacramento, California, got a quick lesson in the work-from-home lifestyle, when she didn’t realize her husband was naked in the background during her segment. On top of this, in some cases, Twitter can have jokes when an anchor slips up.
Those instances of mistakes gone viral presumably didn’t cost these journalists their jobs, however, and hopefully Erick Adame will weather this storm, so to speak, fairly quickly.
