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After an ethnically-insensitive tirade against The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, CNN host and former Miami local news anchor Rick Sanchez has been fired by the network. Sanchez was ultimately done in by his big mouth.
Here, via Mediaite, is CNN’s official statement:
“Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.”
We already covered the bruhaha earlier today, but while being interviewed on Pete Dominick’s Sirius radio show, Sanchez tried to pull off a discussion on prejudice in the media.
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The media picked up on two particular quotes. One in which he calls Stewart a bigot, and another in which he implies that CNN is run by Jews after Dominick asked Sanchez if he though that as a Jew Stewart knew what it was like to be a minority working in the media.
Very powerless people… [snickers] He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… 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? Yeah. [sarcastically]
Later Sanchez said, “I grew up in Miami, all of my friends were Jewish.” OK.
Cuban-born Sanchez’s remarks came out of a talk on how hard it’s been for him to climb the ranks of TV news as a Hispanic. He attempted to compare his childhood, growing up in an immigrant family in Hialeah, to Stewart’s before laying into The Daily Show.
Criticism of the homogeneity of The Daily Show’s writing staff is nothing new. Unfortunately for Sanchez, his mouth appeared to move faster than his brain and his bitter criticism appeared to be fueled by past critics Stewart has made of Sanchez.
Unfortunately, when your job is to talk on TV for a few hours a day you really should be able to think before you speak.
What’s next for Sanchez? Is his career on television over? We doubt either of the other major cable news networks are going to jump on the chance to hire Sanchez. We kind of just wonder if he wanted to return to the Miami television market if anyone would have him?
