A New York-based cable news station fired one of their meteorologists earlier this month after an unknown person sent several of his sexually-explicit videos to workers at the station.
The firing became public on Monday after Erick Adame filed a request with a New York court on Monday asking a website to disclose personal-identifying information for several of its users who are believed to have distributed copies of his videos through the forum.
Adame most recently worked for Spectrum News NY1, a regional cable news channel that covers the New York City metropolitan area. He joined the station in 2017 after serving as an on-air weather forecaster for a Spectrum News station in upstate New York.
Late last year, a member of the online forum “Large Penis Support Group” began uploading explicit photos and videos that purported to show Adame in various states of undress. Some videos originated from Chaturbate, a social media website where users engage in live sex acts through the use of a webcam. Other material came from Grindr, Scruff and other apps that are primarily used by men to find sexual encounters with other men.
At least one of the photos showed Adame with the words “Erick Adame NY1” written in marker across his chest. After the forum posts went live, the photos and videos were e-mailed to several anchors and reporters at NY1, according to two people familiar with the incident. One person who received the photos forwarded them to the company’s human resources division, and an investigation was launched.
Earlier this month, Adame was suspended with pay while the investigation into his online activities continued. His firing came after company executives reviewed a portion of a video in which a partially-nude Adame expressed a desire to have a sexual encounter with a senior colleague at the station, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Howard Bragman, a California public relations specialist and crisis manager who is representing Adame, affirmed that the meteorologist appeared on a number of explicit websites and gay sex apps, but said other claims — including the one that Adame expressed a sexual desire toward a colleague in a video — were “partially or wholly inaccurate.” He did not return a follow-up email from The Desk seeking additional information.
This week, a law firm representing Adame filed a legal request asking a New York court to force the Large Penis Support Group forum to hand over personal-identifying information associated with several usernames, including “TommySize29,” “FunTimes99” and “LandenBoy227.” Through a review of cached webpages, The Desk was able to confirm that one of the usernames mentioned in the court order posted images and videos of Adame last November.
The request claims that the user of the Large Penis Support Group forum breached the forum’s terms of service when it posted Adame’s images and videos without a written agreement from him. Adame is not invoking New York’s “revenge porn” law, which criminalizes the unauthorized dissemination of a person’s intimate photos or videos; one legal expert who spoke with The Desk said his appearance on public webcam forums would make it difficult for him to prevail on that argument.
On Monday, Adame admitted he “secretly appeared on an adult webcam website” where he acted out behaviors that he described as “compulsive.” He affirmed he was “getting the professional help that I need, so I can make appropriate decisions that don’t affect those I care about deeply, as well as my career, as I move forward with my life.”
Adame said he would not apologize “for being openly gay or for being sex-positive.”
“Those are gifts, and I have no shame about them,” he wrote.
Adame did not address concerns that one of his videos identified him as a Spectrum News NY1 employee, nor did he acknowledge the video where he expressed a desire to have a sexual encounter with a senior manager at the station.
His dismissal drew a firestorm of outrage directed at Spectrum News NY1, with some claiming that the meteorologist was terminated for having a private, consensual encounter streamed live over the Internet.
“It’s an outrage that [Spectrum News NY1] would fire him for private, consensual conduct and an affront to the LGBTQ community that he’s not yet been reinstated,” Brad Hoylman, a state senator in New York, wrote in a message posted to Twitter.
Asher Stocker, a government accountability reporter with Gannett-owned Lohud.com, suggested Adame was merely following the advice of New York health officials, who encouraged online sex as an alternate to physical sex in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus two years ago.
“Am I really reading this correctly?” an incredulous Stocker wrote on Twitter. “[Spectrum News NY1] fired Erick Adame for having virtual sex, even though [the] NYC government literally advised people to have virtual sex during the pandemic? What?!”
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Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously said Adame was suspended with pay last November. His suspension took effect earlier this month. The earlier draft also claimed Adame was fired “earlier this year.” He was fired this month.
