What the pluck, Ernie?
Newsman Ernie Anastos apologized last night for his chicken-flavored cussing during the 10 o’clock news a night earlier, when he blurted out, “Keep f- – -ing that chicken.”
He’d apparently meant to say, “keep plucking that chicken,” but fowled up the line while bantering with weatherman Nick Gregory.
Seconds earlier, he had told Gregory, “I guess it takes a tough man to make a tender forecast.”
“I guess that’s me,” Gregory shot back before Anastos let the feathers fly.
“Keep f- – -ing that chicken!” Anastos chirped as he and Gregory shared a boisterous laugh.
Their chuckles stood in stark contrast to the wide-eyed, frozen look of horror plastered on the face of co-anchor Dari Alexander.
Anastos delivered his mea culpa 38 minutes into last night’s broadcast.
“I misspoke during [Wednesday] night’s newscast,” Anastos told viewers. “I apologize for my remarks to anyone who may have been offended.”
WNYW/Channel 5 general manager Lew Leone said earlier, “We are disappointed with Ernie’s comment on the air [Wednesday] night.”
Anastos explained away his flub to Channel 5 brass by saying he was trying to turn a funny phrase off a once-popular Perdue chicken TV commercial, sources said.
Anastos is hardly the first Big Apple broadcaster to use a four-letter mistake.
Salty-tongued Sue Simmons shouted, “What the f- – – are you doing?” during a live promo for her WNBC/Channel 4 show last year.
She apologized and was not punished.
But one-time WCBS/Channel 2 reporter Arthur Chi’en’s goose was cooked after he lashed out at hecklers interfering with his live shot. Chi’en screamed, “What the f- – – is your problem?” at the punks, in an on-air tirade.
Channel 5 GM Leone, news director Dianne Doctor and station President Dennis Swanson all held the exact same positions at Channel 2 in 2005 when they axed Chi’en.
A Channel 5 rep yesterday declined to discuss any parallels between Chi’en and Anastos, who has not been disciplined, at least as of last night.