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CNN Fires Rick Sanchez After Remarks On Jews, Jon Stewart
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 2, 2010
Modified Oct 2, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 2, 2010
Modified Oct 2, 2010
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CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez was fired yesterday by the cable news channel after his ranty remarks during a Sirius XM interivew where he called Jon Stewart a bigot, offered that Jews control the media, and said his bosses discriminated against him because he was Hispanic and were leaving jobs for "the high-profile white guys." CNN said, "Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well,"
Sanchez, whose 8 p.m. CNN show is being replaced by former governor Eliot Spitzer's show with columnist Kathleen Parker, had been promoting his book, Conventional Idiocy, on Pete Dominick's satellite radio show. You can listen to the interview below—and read the transcript here—but here are some of the remarks.
[Referring to a boss at CNN] Cause in his mind I can't be an anchor. An anchor is what you give the high-profile white guys, you know. So he knocks me down to that and compares me to that, and it happens all the time I think...
To a certain extent Jon Stewart and Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot... I think he looks at the world through his mom who was a schoolteacher, and his dad who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything that you could ever imagine... [When asked who Stewart is bigoted against] Everybody else who's not like him. Look at his show! What does he surround himself with?... I think Jon's show is essentially prejudicial. I think that Jon’s show is…[Prejudiced] Against anybody who doesn't agree to his point of view, which is very much a white liberal establishment point of view. He cant relate to a guy like me. He can’t relate to a guy who's dad worked all his life. He can’t relate to somebody who grew up poor.
Dominick, who once worked for Stewart and repeatedly asked Sanchez for an example of Stewart's prejudice, disagreed with his guest's remarks and pointed out Jews faced prejudice—to which Sanchez said, "Yeah, very powerless people. [Stewart]'s such a minority. I mean, you know, please. What are you kidding? I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?" Dominick's show blog suggests that Sanchez was upset that The Daily Show mocks his on-air failings more than Fox News' issues.
Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher took shots at Sanchez last night—the Jewish media conspiracy musta made 'em do it, though.
Tagged
cnn
jews
Jon Stewart
media conspiracy
parker spitzer
Peter Dominick
Rick Sanchez
you're fired
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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