News viewers in Maine got a big surprise when two anchors resigned while on air.

Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio resigned on Tuesday night from the WVII/WFVX ABC 7 news station in Bangor, Maine. The reason for the joint resignation was reported disputes with the station's executives over various reporting practices, according to the Bangor Daily News. Consiglio said on air regarding the reason for their joint resignation, "some recent developments have come to our attention and departing together is the best alternative we can take."

The resignation took place during a live taping of the 6 p.m. news edition.

"I just wanted to know that I was doing the best job I could and was being honest and ethical as a journalist, and I thought there were times when I wasn't able to do that," said 28-year-old Consiglio.

Michaels, 46, commented on the timing of the resignation adding, "We figured if we had tendered our resignations off the air, we would not have been allowed to say goodbye to the community on the air and that was really important for us to do that."

Much of the on-air staff was stunned by the breaking news. However, the announcement didn't come as a shock to Mike Palmer, the station's vice president and general manager, who told local reporters the following:

"No, that was unfortunate, but not unexpected. We'll hire experienced people to fill these positions sooner rather than later."

Over the past four years, the anchors had disagreements with the station about what they felt was "unbalanced" reporting, but no details have been given to elaborate. Consiglio and Michaels worked for the station for about six years and decided between each other that this was how they wanted to go.

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