By OPEN Sports - Steve Azar and Sid Rosenberg at Gino Torretta's Charity Event Hard Rock Hotel and Casino 2009 OPENSports.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93128452
The Gothamist reports a new right-wing radio host is apologizing after lobbing over-the-top insults at a Democrat.
Joining the ranks of other conservative radio jockeys who have also had to recant statements and apologize to their audience, WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg apologized to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday after calling him an “America-hating, Jew-hating, Radical Islam cockroach” and a “jihadist” on X this week.
Rosenberg unleashed his attack after Mamdani called U.S. airstrikes on Iran “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression.” But as criticism rolled in over Tuesday, Rosenberg claimed on social media, “No one can force me to apologize. I won’t do it. I did nothing wrong!”
One day dater — the same day WABC CEO John Catsimatidis said the station would not tolerate “personal attacks” — a more humble Rosenberg released a video saying his comments were “a bit over the top” and claiming he had apologized to Mamdani.
“I should not resort to name-calling,” Rosenberg said on his show, "Sid and Friends in the Morning" on Wednesday. “I've already apologized to the mayor and it was heartfelt.”
Rosenberg is no stranger to racist or incendiary comments, however, having referred to tennis legend Venus Williams as an “animal” and once calling the U.S. Women’s Olympic soccer team “juiced-up dykes,” according to The Gothamist.
The social media platform known has X been ramping up apologies from vociferous right-wing entertainers. Rosenberg is the second MAGA-curious radio personality who caught President Donald Trump’s war-fever and said something regrettable this week. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported inflammatory right-wing radio host Dan O'Donnell also recently apologized on X a few days after calling for someone to “take out” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Trump-style, after Trump killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with joint air strikes.
O’Donnell posted a March 1 request on X to: "Now take out the Supreme Leader of Minnesota,” and claimed “We will be greeted as liberators,” followed with the tweet of an AI photo of Gov. Walz wearing a black turban with the phrase "Death to fraud investigations!" in quotes.
Like Rosenberg, O’Donnell deleted his inflammatory post and apologized, writing on X that "I want to take a moment to offer my sincerest apologies for a post I made about Minnesota's Governor that, quite frankly, I am deeply ashamed of.”
“Time will tell how sincere of an apology it is,” Mamdani said, reports the Gothamist.
