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You are here: Home / Dirty Sanchez

Dirty Sanchez

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You’ve probably heard about Rick Sanchez’s “Jews run everything” freak-out by now. I agree with Paul Campos of Lawyers, Guns, and Money that it’s ridiculous for Sanchez to whine about how the Jewish man is keeping Cuban-American tv personalities down (which seemed to be what Sanchez was getting at):

I happen to have a fairly similar background to Sanchez in a number of ways. Now it’s always dangerous to generalize about other peoples’ lives on the basis of one’s own experiences, but with that nuanced scholarly caveat in mind, I’m calling bullshit. Not just on the obviously hysterical Protocols of the Elders of Zion stuff here, but on Sanchez’s all but explicit claim that he’s a discriminated-against minority while Jon Stewart is not just a white guy, but an especially privileged white guy (because he’s a Jew and Jews run the media etc).

My sense is that this doesn’t hurt Sanchez’s career as much as you might think, since nowadays it’s fine to endorse Jewish conspiracy theories as long as you don’t criticize right-wing Israelis. Just compare the cases of Gregg Easterbrook and Charles Freeman.

Update. CNN cans Sanchez.

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    With an anti-semetic outburst like that, his days in the front row White House Correspondent seat are numbered. Now I guess we just need to figure out whether to give it to NPR or FOX News.

    Wait? What’s that? Mark Sanchez isn’t the pen name for Helen Thomas? My bad, then. Please disregard.

  5. 5.

    New Yorker

    Let’s see if this leads to as much of a freak-out and howls of “anti-semite!” and “Auschwitz!” at Commentary and The Weekly Standard as do criticisms of, say, Israel’s interception of that aid flotilla. After all, this is genuine anti-semitism on display here, not criticism of a foreign government that has been declared beyond reproach.

  6. 6.

    GambitRF

    Sanchez’s defense should be that he read that off of somebody’s twitter feed, since that’s pretty much all I ever see him doing whenever he’s anchoring CNN.

  7. 7.

    Jewish Steel

    …since nowadays it’s fine to endorse Jewish conspiracy theories as long as you don’t criticize right-wing Israelis.

    Witness Mel Gibson and his Opus Dei dad.

    Every day I go down to the mailbox and look in vain for my conspiracy check. If this keeps up I will be forced to seek honest employment.

    *sighs heavily

  9. 9.

    jacy

    Somehow this makes Sanchez’ takedown of Lou Dobbs as a racist douchebag far less satisfying.

    Is it just me, or has the trend towards anybody on TV just saying whatever the fuck crazy thing that pops into their heads spun out of control lately?

  10. 10.

    HyperIon

    OT but I just got a threat notification when I clicked on the post. I use AVG (the free version) and FF 3.6.10

    Threat name: Exploit CRiMEPACK Exploit Kit (type 1636)

    WTF?

  11. 11.

    Emma

    As a proud Cuban-American I can tell you…. Jesus, was I glad to get that overacting drama queen out of local news!

  12. 12.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @HyperIon:

    Threat name: Exploit CRiMEPACK Exploit Kit (type 1636)

    I guess the Jews got to Paul, too.

  13. 13.

    ajr22

    This guy is an asshole. I liked the part when he said “Im a complex human being not just a moron.” The lady doth protest to much. Man this guy is really butthurt from the ethering Stewart gives him on the reg.

  14. 14.

    jl

    What a mess. The message I get is not that Sanchez is an outrageous anti Semite (but resentment at imagined privilege of Jews has given him a smidge, apparently).

    Rather, it is of a pompous, think skinned media celebrity letting off steam about relatively trivial slights, and in the process managing to ram both feet down his throat, repeatedly.

    The Daily Show, a comedy show no matter what people say, picks on him for balance? What an outrage!

    I guess on that score Pelosi and Brian Williams ought to blast Stewart too. Because that would be the smart and grownup thing to do, right?

    And, also too: The corporate media world should understand that The Daily Show is a comedy show. Just because everyone on the Daily Show is smarter and more informed that 95 percent of the corporate media world, it is still an entertainment comedy show. So, when an effing COMEDY SHOW can regularly make the corporate media look stupid, they should take a time out for some self reflection rather than spewing resentful confused BS.

    I also note that one of the main news correspondents that Stewart hangs out with is a Muslim from Tampa Florida. Now, my friends, that is bigotry and prejudice in action. Right?

  15. 15.

    Mark S.

    I suggest you might ask yourself why your last name is still Sanchez while Jon Stuart Leibowitz’s is now Stewart.

    Ouch.

    Also, this was a weird exchange:

    Pete asked, “They can’t relate to that? A Jewish person doesn’t have a constant fear in the back of their head that we could [inaudible] the Holocaust?”

    “I think his father could,” Sanchez replied, referring to Stewart.

    “I think every Jewish person feels that way,” Pete said.

    “I hope so,” Sanchez responded.

    WTF?

  16. 16.

    Poopyman

    @New Yorker:
    This will not even be a blip on anybody’s radar outside of us liberofascist pinko blogrollers. Or whatever they’re calling us these days.

    Except… if Stewart has a piece on this all bets are off. Of course then all of the bloviating will be on whatever Stewart says and not on what Sanchez said.

    It is ever thus.

  17. 17.

    bmcchgo

    Via Alex Parnee at Salon’s War Room:

    In this middle of his presumably career-ending rant, Sanchez said something that could serve as CNN’s mission statement: “If we’re gonna call one side bigoted, we probably gotta look at the other side and say the same thing.”

    Done.

  18. 18.

    MattR

    @Poopyman: Could we get Jon being silent but Colbert complaining about not getting any attention from Sanchez and then running a piece every day next week picking on Rick?

  19. 19.

    Anne

    @Cliff: The “Iceland’s too cold for a volcano” was already bad, but did he really say “Hawaii and long words like that?” Dude…

    And Mark S. @15: I had the same reaction. WTF does he mean he hopes so?

  20. 20.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    since nowadays it’s fine to endorse Jewish conspiracy theories as long as you don’t criticize right-wing Israelis only endorse the one where 99% of Jews getting wasted = Happy Rapture Jesus Fun Time.

    Fixed.

  22. 22.

    jl

    @MattR: Oh dear. i hope Colbert does not do that. Or maybe I hope that it does.

    For, that would blow the lid off of the bigotry (or would it be prejudice?) of the self contained and privileged South Carolina Irish Catholic liberal mafia?

  23. 23.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @jl:

    For, that would blow the lid off of the bigotry (or would it be prejudice?) of the self contained and privileged South Carolina Irish Catholic liberal mafia?

    Don’t give Bob Somerby any ideas, okay.

  24. 24.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Cliff:

    Every now and then I wonder if I did the wrong thing in ceasing to watch any televised news, or talking head shows, after December, 2008. Thank you for putting that one to rest for me.

  26. 26.

    jl

    The real crime of Colbert is that every year during Peach Month, he flacks for South Caroline peaches. Claims that South Carolina is a ‘major producer’. What a sick joke, and harmful to the public health, and devastating to an educated public. You know what they do with most of the peaches in South Carlina? They use them for baby food. Also. Too.

  27. 27.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @jl:

    I lived not far from the South Carolina border in Georgia and we had great peaches.

  29. 29.

    Tom Factor

    @HyperIon: There’s an ad on one of the adnets that’s doing that. Twas happening at Pharyngula too, until they isolated, then removed the offending ad.

  31. 31.

    Jewish Steel

    Further,

    I am a complex human being, I’m not some moron

    It says nothing one way the other about his complexity, whatever that may be.

    But attracting the attention of the foremost satirist of the past 10 years? And his crack staff? With a statement of preening self-regard like that? That refutes the moron assertion.

  33. 33.

    ajr22

    Annnnnd Greenwald is taking shots at the BJ comment section “John Cole recommends Ken Silverstein’s awesome good-bye piece, and his first 10 commenters illustrate “epistemic closure” Via twitter.

  34. 34.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    Maybe Sanchez was drunk when he said all this shit, just like he was when he killed a guy with his car in 1990.

    He took off from the scene that time. I wonder how fast he’ll back away from these remarks.

  35. 35.

    Dan

    So much craziness from Sanchez, it’s hard to know where to start.

    What strikes me as especially bizarre is his choice of targets. Stewart doesn’t exactly fit the bigot mold, and to the extent that he made fun of Sanchez it was because the guy was just about the most useless news anchor in a field where the bar gets lower and lower by the minute.

    Also, i don’t think anyone would question that Stewart’s success did not come easy and was well-deserved. He did it on a tv station that most people hadn’t even heard of before he and South Park were on it.

  36. 36.

    JGabriel

    Stand Up With Pete Dominick:

    Pete pressed, “What group is he [Jon Stewart] bigoted towards?”
    __
    Sanchez replied: “Everybody else who’s not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?”

    What makes this particularly stupid is the “Look at his show” clause. I mean, okay, let’s look:

    A Brit (John Oliver), an Indian Muslim (Aasif Mandvi), a few Canadians (Samantha Bee, Jason Jones), a half-Asian (Olivia Munn), a Black American (Wyatt Cenac), a few White Southerners (Steven Colbert, Ed Helms), etc.

    Oh My GOD, Sanchez is RIGHT! It’s like a KKK meeting with a sprinkling of the DAR!

    Whatever.

    .

  37. 37.

    TR

    OT but if you haven’t seen Obama’s Gen44 speech, do yourself a favor. Benen has the YouTube up at Washington Monthly.

  38. 38.

    MattR

    @jl: I think it is kinda funny that The Daily Show recently did a bit about their lack of diversity and focused on how they have no white male Christian American correspondents. (EDIT: see @JGabriel for proof)

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: Piedmont? Got pulled over in South Carolina once going 70 in a 65. I saw the cop and did not bother to slow down. Turns out I got a warning because a couple bears had been hit on that stretch of highway recently and they decided a speed trap was a better way of informing motorists than a bright neon sign.

  39. 39.

    peach flavored shampoo

    Maybe Sanchez was drunk when he said all this shit, just like he was when he killed a guy with his car in 1990.

    Whoa. And he didn’t do time? As early as ’96, he was broadcasting down in Miami.

  40. 40.

    mikefromArlington

    But when every other pundit talks about how the Muslims are taking everything over and want to enslave our women it’s trendy, or something…

  41. 41.

    Poopyman

    @Svensker:

    Clean up in Kona coffee aisle. Dang.

    What, was it that guy with the high-speed vacuum cleaner? We’re gonna have to peel him off of the ceiling in a couple of hours and put him on an oatmeal stout IV drip.

  42. 42.

    HyperIon

    @jl wrote:

    You know what they do with most of the peaches in South Carlina?

    All the SC peaches I get are eaten and enjoyed immediately. IMO SC is the source of the world’s best peaches. In fact peaches are the only reason for SC to exist (again IMO).

    The ones out here in WA are mostly pathetic .

  43. 43.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @ajr22:

    You know my attitude, I don’t care what people say about this blog as long as they spell URL right.

  44. 44.

    HyperIon

    @Tom Factor wrote:

    Twas happening at Pharyngula too, until they isolated, then removed the offending ad.

    Well, I hope “they” do the same here.

    I see the slaughterhouse ads are back.

  45. 45.

    Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)

    OK, I have a question related to this topic, which no once reporting on the Sanchez interview seems to have the time to find out: is CNN and most of the east coast media actually majority RUN by Jews or not?

    Why is it so hard to get an answer to that?

    Is it in the category of questions that are not allowed to be asked and answered?

  46. 46.

    Maude

    @ajr22:
    We’re famous. Do we get our pictures taken?

    Bet CNN isn’t happy about the remarks. Prolly the lawyers are looking over the Sanchez contract.

  47. 47.

    Sentient Puddle

    Well, it’s apparently a big enough deal that CNN apparently is going to comment on this later today.

  48. 48.

    Mark S.

    @peach flavored shampoo:

    Here:

    Mr. Sanchez had already survived what would ordinarily be a career-killer*. While leaving a Miami Dolphins game with his father in 1990, Mr. Sanchez struck a drunken pedestrian, who later died of his injuries. According to police, Mr. Sanchez’s own blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit, and he left the scene before returning. He ultimately pleaded no contest to a D.U.I. charge, but avoided jail time, and even remained on the air.

  50. 50.

    Lev

    @Mark S.: It’s almost enough to make you think there’s some shadowy group of people protecting him from trouble.

    Oh, wait, he’s a Gentile. Well, then…never mind.

  52. 52.

    Cliff

    @Dennis SGMM:

    I cut off the tee-vee machine quite a few years ago, the internets are far more worthwhile.

    also, too, nowadays I can stream or download most decent stuff.

    anything they don’t stream or provide legally they obviously think is worthless, so why should I watch it if the producers of the crap don’t even want us to watch it. F’em! They’re too stupid /incompetent to sell commercials to support the stream/dl? F’em!

  53. 53.

    daveNYC

    What does “east coast media” mean?

    The east coast is not part of Real America until you get south of the Mason Dixon. With the exception of the holiest of holies, ground zero.

  54. 54.

    Steve

    Gregg Easterbrook paid a significant price for writing something offensive. I realize some have the attitude that “if they don’t take you out back and shoot you, that’s like saying it’s okay,” but really, I think the price was appropriate. I don’t think permanent exile from public life is necessary, unless you’re going around wearing a swastika or something.

  55. 55.

    jl

    @Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): These are giant international corporations. What does it meant ‘to be run by’? Who would you pick? The execs?

    Is Sony mostly run by some privileged Japanese elite? And that influences Columbia pictures how?

    So, get some arbitrary list of bigshots and see how many Jewish looking names are on it? What would that mean?

  56. 56.

    Dan

    @Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): Yeah, I tend to think jew-counting is probably not a good idea.

    As a jew, it sometimes seems to me that we are stuck in some strange nether region where we are viewed as too integrated into society to be counted (the way the country counts african american football coaches, for example), but not integrated enough to stop people from referring to us as a single block and treating us like outsiders.

    Certainly before we have to go and start counting jewish people in the news media, I’d like to hear some coherent explanation of why it matters how many jews there at cnn

  57. 57.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    Every day I go down to the mailbox and look in vain for my conspiracy check.

    Those funds have been diverted to support the Gay Agenda. Don’t worry. Once we get every man, woman, child and box turtle married off to someone of the same gender the cash flow will resume.

  59. 59.

    Poopyman

    @daveNYC:

    The east coast is not part of Real America until you get -south of the Mason Dixon-well south of Northern Virginia.

    Fixed.

    With the exception of the holiest of holies, ground zero.

    Seconded.

  62. 62.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @Steve:

    I maintain that he paid much less of a price than if he’d said critical things about the Israeli government.

  63. 63.

    MattR

    @Dan:

    Certainly before we have to go and start counting jewish people in the news media, I’d like to hear some coherent explanation of why it matters how many jews there at cnn

    It certainly matters a heckuva lot more what other companies are owned by the companies that own the news media. The fact that the owner of MSNBC gets billions of dollars from the government every year in defense contracts (and whose biggest source of revenue is actually the financial sector which could be heavily impacted by government regulation) is a bit more relevant than if MSNBC is “run” by Jews.

    @Poopyman: I am guessing Jew Watch is not YouTube for Jews.

  64. 64.

    Poopyman

    @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal:

    Are you so sure about that? Jew Watch is on the case.

    Jew Watch??!? Are you serious?

    Actually, that’s a real question, because that site is blocked by my company’s intertube. (No surprise there.)

    Now the armed ninja sysadmins are coming for me, I guess.

  65. 65.

    JWL

    His remark about a vast Jewish conspiracy put me in mind of a line from a movie I once watched: “I used to think all Russians were diabolically clever until I met Boris”.

  66. 66.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    I dunno, I don’t think his remarks about Jews in general, while clumsy and insensitive, were so far out there that he can’t weasel his way out of this with a cursory apology. Saying that Sanchez was venturing into Protocols of the Elders of Zion territory, as Campos did, is an overstatement. But attacking somebody as a racist based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever, that’s pretty nasty stuff.

  68. 68.

    Midnight Marauder

    @JGabriel:

    What makes this particularly stupid is the “Look at his show” clause.

    Actually, what makes this particularly stupid is the fact that Pete Dominick is the former warm-up comedian for The Daily Show and remains friends with Jon Stewart and the rest of the staff. That’s all you need to know to prove that Sanchez is, in fact, not a complex human being but an actual moron. Of all the people you could possibly make such a hideously tone-deaf statement to, you choose someone who was once employed by Stewart and has a personal relationship with him.

    Good one, Sanchez.

  69. 69.

    DlewOnRoids

    @Steve: Moreover, Easterbrook didn’t allege a Jewish conspiracy; he implied that Jewish movie executives ought to have a particular sensitivity to the level of violence in their movies, and suggested that Disney’s Jewish executives’ greed desensitized them. It was a tortured comparison based on an inaccurate premise and oh yeah, it also sounded like Easterbrook thought he should tell Jews what they should feel as Jews, which is kind of weird. But it wasn’t generally anti-semitic or specifically about a Jewish conspiracy.

  70. 70.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @jl:

    So, get some arbitrary list of bigshots and see how many Jewish looking names are on it? What would that mean?

    Nothing! Not when a guy like Tony Curtis could easily slip by that way.

  71. 71.

    Jewish Steel

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    Whew. Okay, patience.

    I will carry on drinking the blood of Christian babies from a chipped crystal goblet.

    *identical heavy sigh.

    The radio version of Jew Watch: What Jew Talkin’ About?

    Hiyo!

  74. 74.

    daveNYC

    I maintain that he paid much less of a price than if he’d said critical things about the Israeli government.

    I think it’s a bit more nuanced than that. It’s not that you can’t criticize the Israeli government, it’s that you can’t say anything that might change the narrative that Israelis are the good guys, and that the Palestinians (or whoever) are thuggish bad guys out to destroy them.

  75. 75.

    IM

    I am the only one who has sympathy for the devil?

    I don’t see antisemitism here. I see an inept attempt at victim olympics: We latinos are much more suppressed then you jews! Also the four Yorkshireman; my father had it hard, I did not even speak english, his father was middle class etc.

    And Jews (in the US) are not just a disadvantaged minority jut like puerto ricans: Vote like puerto ricans, live like episcopalians.

    Aren`t Jews rather positioned like mormons, more middle class than most others, but still facing problems presbyterians or episcopalians never would?

    That said, he is a bit silly: he is wildly conjecturing about Stewart, and perhaps should think about the significance of the G. in Edward G. Robinson in a time were hollywood was owned by a bunch of jews.

    But then Joe Kennedy still complained that everybody had it in for the Irish when he was one of the richest man in the US and his son almost president. So some middling anchor can play that game too.

  77. 77.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Every now and then I wonder if I did the wrong thing in ceasing to watch any televised news, or talking head shows, after December, 2008. Thank you for putting that one to rest for me.

    Amen.

    I stopped watching that stuff sometime in 2009 because it was causing me too much distress. I immediately felt better, so I never went back.

    Mr. Sanchez has a face that is familiar to me but I don’t think that I have ever really listened to him. Thank Goodness for small favors.

  79. 79.

    Alwhite

    @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal:

    Back in the pre-internet days I used to work with a guy that seemed normal enough but he read Searchlight and used to bring in books for me to read that were filled with the sort of “Jewish/Communist conspiracy with black foot-soldier” crap that has been bubbling from the Birchers on through to the teabaggers. One was an expose of the Rockefeller family – the very first charge on the very first page was that the old man was really a Jew!

  81. 81.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @Dan:

    I always assumed he was Italian, I’ve always linked him with Tony Bennett for some reason (similar accents, same first name).

  82. 82.

    Steve

    @DlewOnRoids: It was an offensive statement. I don’t want to parse exactly what “anti-semitic” means, but it was a statement about greedy Jewish executives that basically played into a stereotype. Point being, it was bad, it was far from the end of the world, and I think the punishment fit the crime. If the guy wasn’t allowed to ever work again I’d think that was massive overkill.

  83. 83.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @IM:

    Yeah, but Sanchez is a Cuban from suburban Miami. And he’s whining about how comfy it is to be a Jew in New Jersey? If he was the only Latino kid in his class in Arkansas, maybe I’d have more sympathy, but he wasn’t.

  84. 84.

    Dan

    It’s interesting, the specific accusations change, but the focus on jews seems to linger on through the years

    in russia, jews were communists to the czarists and czarists to the communists. In germany, jews were both financiers ruining the country and filthy ignorant peasants at the same time.

    When jews integrate they are being sneaky, when they don’t they are being elitist and disloyal.

    When they are successful they are nothing but money-grubbers, when they are poor they are dirty peddlars.

    When they are rounded up and slaughtered they are derided as cowardly and weak. when they are aggressive/physical they are viewed as overly powerful instigators.

    To the religious they are godless cultural subversives, to the atheists they are primitive moralizers.

    The list goes on and on. Through it all they are “jews”.

    When a group includes Glenn Greenwald and Abe Foxman, many attorneys at the ACLU and lobbyists at AIPAC, writers at Commentary and writers at the New York Review of Books, does it ever make sense to use such generalities?

  85. 85.

    jl

    Is this ‘Jew Watch’ thing a spoof?

    Says Murdoch is Jewish because he married a rich Jewish women.

    I stopped reading after that bit of earth shaking news. Murdoch is part of the world Jewish media conspiracy, now.

    Too deep or too silly or too nasty for me to deal with.

    Maybe some one will explain to me what that JW thing is.

    Could be very dry and dark humor, but probably not.

  86. 86.

    jl

    @Dan: No, and such self contradictory nonsense is a sign that a group is being picked on for overall scattershot defamation for purposes of enforcing one’s own tribal identity, whatever that happens to be.

  87. 87.

    MikeJ

    @Steve: What punishment? He said something bigoted and people called him a bigot. Beyond that, I don’t know of anything that happened to him.

  90. 90.

    Jay

    Sanchez was off the air today, at least.

    And since Sanchez pushes the “If one side is bigoted, we must also look at the other” line, I trust old Rick also believes it’s a sensible, centrist, moderate bipartisan position to conclude that the media is under Jewish control.

    (anti-bigotry sarcasm on my part)

  91. 91.

    Legalize

    @IM:
    I don’t know about that one. Once Sanchez start complaining about Jews “running the media,” you get into serious self-Godwining territory. To me it sounds like “welfare queens” and “t-bone steak” type dog-whistle stuff.

  93. 93.

    Southern Beale

    Trying to wrap my head around the idea that a guy WITH HIS OWN CABLE TV SHOW is somehow discriminated against because ANOTHER GUY WITH HIS OWN CABLE TV SHOW has his own cable TV show.

    Or somethin’.

    Seriously, WTF is his beef?

  94. 94.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    I will carry on drinking the blood of Christian babies from a chipped crystal goblet.

    Oh, you poor thing. Here, take one of the ones I use to slip roofies to young conservative Christians. It’s no problem. I’ve got hundreds! Of crystal goblets that is. The YCCs get thrown out with the bottles of champagne once a week.

  95. 95.

    IM

    Well, as I said, I think it was more pointing out that nobody knows the trouble the Cuban – Americans have seen, especially this middle-class elitist Stewart, who can’t grok the downtrodden latino blue collar experience.

    Perhaps Sanchez is just a anti-colonialist, like his father?

  97. 97.

    IM

    Speaking of colonies, haven’t all these New York and New Jersey

    …liberals colonized southern florida,

    shoving aside the indigent cuban-american population,

    so that the anti-colonial impetus of Sanchez – who is clinging on a toe hold at tiny CNN while Stewart easily reigns at media giant Comedy Central – is, if not justified, at least understandable?

    Shouldn’t all these people, all these pushy, you know,

    new yorkers and new Jerseyians, be a bit more humble?

    Only asking questions, as a small town resident.

  99. 99.

    MTiffany

    I’d love to see Candy Crowley interview this guy (’cause ‘reporters’ interview other ‘reporters,’ that’s how it works, right?)

    Crowley: “Some people say there are too many fucking Jews in the media. What do you think?”

    …

  100. 100.

    maus

    @Emma:

    As a proud Cuban-American I can tell you…. Jesus, was I glad to get that overacting drama queen out of local news!

    Yeah, fuck channel 7. Rick Sanchez was always a Fox blowhard from day 1, he was not well-liked and his DUI and general narcissism hasn’t helped anything.

  101. 101.

    Stav

    DougJ

    Actually upon arriving in the U.S. the leadership of the Cuban-American community in Miami held that the only way for such a tiny group to hold any sway in the U.S. was to emulate the Jewish community. Most cubans of Rick Sanchez’s age do not see themselves as a minority and have little affinity with “Latino” or Hispanic. They see themselves as a close-knit group that has garnered outsized representation in Congress, in local government, in business and in the media.

  103. 103.

    Karen in GA

    TV Newser’s saying Sanchez has been fired.

    Poor guy. It’s not his fault. It’s the Jews that made him a moron. (Or something.)

  104. 104.

    lou

    Rick Sanchez was a pioneer in “it bleeds, it leads” back in the 80s. it lead to WSVN’s ratings surge. The station splashed black mug shots hither and yon and probably helped shape white America’s view of black men as thugs and criminals. So now he’s crying racism? right-o.

    And then there’s the whole ludicrousness of a Cuban American guy growing up in predominantly Cuban American Hialeah claiming discrimination and persecution.

  105. 105.

    MikeJ

    @Steve: Most people would expect to never get *that* particular job back if they had been fired for calling their bosses money grubbing jooz.

  106. 106.

    Steve

    @Stav:

    Actually upon arriving in the U.S. the leadership of the Cuban-American community in Miami held that the only way for such a tiny group to hold any sway in the U.S. was to emulate the Jewish community. Most cubans of Rick Sanchez’s age do not see themselves as a minority and have little affinity with “Latino” or Hispanic.

    Is that the salient characteristic of the Jewish community? They don’t consider themselves a minority? They don’t think of themselves as “Jewish”?

    There is an ongoing debate within the Jewish community (yes, it exists!) whether Jews are supposed to “stand apart” from civil society. Heck, for hardcore Jews the worst thing they can call another Jew is “assimilationist.”

    Maybe I’m not clear on the point you were making.

  108. 108.

    KevinNYC

    Um Rick, I don’t think Jon Stewart is making fun of you because your Hispanic. I think it’s because you’re a pompous idiot who has

    a. Thought the islands off the coast of South America were Hawaii.
    b. Asked for an English translation of the English phrase “nine meters.”
    c. Read the words “Ad lib a tease” straight from the teleprompter.
    d. Pronounced the word “annals” as “anals.”

    You generally make Ron Burgundy look like Walter Cronkite.

  111. 111.

    Texas Dem

    My sense is that this doesn’t hurt Sanchez’s career as much as you might think, since nowadays it’s fine to endorse Jewish conspiracy theories as long as you don’t criticize right-wing Israelis. Just compare the cases of Gregg Easterbrook and Charles Freeman.

    Uh, dude, CNN fired Sanchez this afternoon. Perhaps it’s time to update your post?

  115. 115.

    KevinNYC

    Also Sanchez should add John Quinones to the list of people he needs to apologize to. Quinones is a professional newsman. Sanchez is a clown.

  117. 117.

    Anya

    I thought the media was controled by the Irish mafia. Am I wrong? Also too, if Sanchez said something despicable about Muslims, no one would bat an eye, except anti-colonialist Kenyans. Just saying.

  119. 119.

    Texas Dem

    Expect to see him doing late night infomercials for various health care products and business ventures. Hair Club for Men and Real Estate for No Money Down, here we come!

  121. 121.

    Texas Dem

    I can’t imagine networks are gonna be beating down the door for this guy. He wasn’t exactly ratings gold.

    Exactly. If the guy had been able to get anyone to watch his program, he’d probably still have a job, although undoubtedly with some sort of suspension and required public apology. But when you screw up like this and your ratings suck, you’re almost always toast. Hence my prediction that we’ll soon see Rick riding the late night infomercial circuit.

  123. 123.

    Midnight Marauder

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    Wait to see who picks him up first.

    In all honesty, I know that inevitably Sanchez will receive a generous job offer from some media organization (probably the Huffington Post, because they are both horrible entities), but I would really like to think this moment in time will have a sizable impact on his career prospects for the remainder of the nonsensical existence he calls a “life.”

    Everyone knows Sanchez is an idiot. I mean, everyone. Even Sanchez knows (to a degree) that he’s an idiot. That’s probably why he offered up his utterly feeble, but instantly classic “defense” of his credibility:

    I am a complex human being, I’m not some moron

    Right. You are not just “some” moron; you were a moron working for one of the most “prestigious” “news organizations” in the world. That means people kind of pay attention when you say things like:

    “when you think of a volcano, you think of Hawaii and long words like that. You don’t think of Iceland. You think it’s too cold to have a volcano there”

    “By the way, nine meters in English is?”

    during a volcanic explosion and an earthquake, respectfully.

    Even if Sanchez gets another job in the media, I doubt he ever comes as close to the status he enjoyed during his time at CNN. The guy has firmly established himself as a laughingstock and kind of a bigot in the eyes of a great deal of the population, and moreover, in the eyes of the Jews media professionals who run all of the big news organizations.

    The dude is done and it couldn’t have happened to a bigger know-nothing asshole.

    Well, it could have, but still, Sanchez is a pretty major know-nothing. And a total asshole. So there you go.

  124. 124.

    Mornington Crescent

    Ad lib a tease. Heh.

    That’s like Ted Baxter in the election night episode:

    “Welcome to WJM’s election night coverage and remember, we’ll be on the air until a winner has been declared. Take off glasses, look concerned.”

  126. 126.

    maus

    The funny thing is, Miami Cubans are very used to Jews, there’s no actual tension there. There’s more of a tension towards US-born blacks and Haitians.

    This was a stunt to ramp up his mainstream conservative credentials that failed horrendously.

  127. 127.

    Paula

    Dude, isn’t it a little weird that Jon Stewart keeps getting people fired from CNN?

    Or hilarious. I haven’t decided.

  128. 128.

    Comrade Kevin

    “By the way, nine meters in English is?”
    during a volcanic explosion and an earthquake, respectfully.

    Nine meters, in English units, is how many feet?

  129. 129.

    Steve

    Is it anti-semitic to point out that there are a lot of Jewish lawyers? (I am one.) If a Jewish colleague said to me, “You know, it’s really tough in this profession, being a minority and all,” I would laugh at him, or at least laugh behind his back later. Likewise, if someone said, “It must be hard for Shlomo to make it as a lawyer, being a minority and all,” I would find it comical. Well, assuming Shlomo is Jewish and not a gay black Mormon-Muslim hybrid or something.

    I think Sanchez was trying to make a similar point about Jews not exactly bearing the stigma of a “minority” in the entertainment business. I just think he expressed it really really poorly. One might say that’s a disqualifier anyway for someone whose job involves communication, but I’m not convinced Sanchez’s job actually involved communication.

  131. 131.

    maus

    @Steve:

    Is it anti-semitic to point out that there are a lot of Jewish lawyers? (I am one.)

    The old adage “it’s not so much what you say but how you say it” comes to mind.

    I think Sanchez was trying to make a similar point about Jews not exactly bearing the stigma of a “minority” in the entertainment business. I just think he expressed it really really poorly.

    That’s the problem with his bombastic manner of speaking, though it really was a tame expression of racist bias, his self-importance and drama led it to appear far more loathsome, even though CNN employs far greater racists like Erickson.

    Anyway, there’s no stigma against conservative Cubans in a white-dominated media, but there are pretty few liberal Cuban-Americans in news, that I’m aware of. They don’t usually make it out of Miami alive.

  132. 132.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    @Midnight Marauder:

    during a volcanic explosion and an earthquake, respectfully.

    Is this another Sanchezism?

    @Steve:

    I think Sanchez was trying to make a similar point about Jews not exactly bearing the stigma of a “minority” in the entertainment business. I just think he expressed it really really poorly.

    This is closer to my take as well. I never watched him much because he seemed so hamfisted to me, and I think that describes him more accurately than suggesting he’s a raging anti-semite.

  133. 133.

    Alwhite

    @Comrade Kevin:

    I forget – it was the one that lost the lawsuit over their offer of a million bucks to anyone that could offer proof of the Holocaust – real sweethearts.

  135. 135.

    Triassic Sands

    My sense is that this doesn’t hurt Sanchez’s career as much as you might think,

    Apparently your sense was wrong. Since neither the death penalty nor prison time was a possible outcome, I guess the worst anyone could have imagined happening to Sanchez would have been the loss of his job. Mission accomplished.

    I wonder if Fox will have any use for him?

  137. 137.

    El Cid

    Hey, is it still okay to say bad things about Arabs & Muslims on air? That would be interesting.

  138. 138.

    Triassic Sands

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    Sadly, DougJ, you could be right.

    On the other hand, working for Fox — the worst, most vile mainstream news organization in American history — is a reasonably reliable sign that one is a horrible human being and worthless journalist. If Sanchez had any personal sense of integrity, he will have to give that up to go to work for Roger.

    Since I don’t watch Fox, I have no idea if they have any use for Sanchez, and if they do, how prominent a role he might have. Moving from having his own show on CNN to being a pinch-hitter on Fox would not rate as a successful career move. At least not in the short-term.

    On the other other hand, shamed media figures often reappear without having lost much if anything after pulling some lame stunt, so Sanchez might do it.

  143. 143.

    Michael D.

    Criticize Sanchez all you want, and he deserves to be grilled for this, but he asked a lot of Republicans a lot of questions and called them on their stupidity. I’ll miss him. I’m really disappointed to find out he is a bit of a bigot, but his on-air personality was fun and he really did not let stupid opinions pass (except his own, sadly).

    I enjoyed his show. I enjoyed watching him shut Republicans up. To me, this is like finding out your friend is an asshole. You just don’t want to believe it.

    I see people commenting on stuff Sanchez has said, like Iceland being too cold for volcanoes. Yeah, that was factually dumb, but he was just having fun. I think, on balance, he was a pretty decent guy who did a lot of work to make stupidity hurt for Republicans. Too bad he turned out to be a bit stupid himself.

    Oh, and as a Jew myself, I wasn’t particularly offended by Sanchez. If you want to know why, look at the Boards of Directors and senior management of all the media and entertainment companies. Liberals like to talk about proportional representation. Well, we’re way overrepresented. I think Sanchez has a bigger problem with this than is warranted, but that doesn’t mean he is completely wrong.

    Just sayin’.

  144. 144.

    Michael D.

    Oh, and for those cynically postulating that Sanchez will go to Fox? I don’t think so. While he may not express himself in an interview very well – in fact, very badly – I think he would not be Fox material.

    Rick Sanchez has been an advocate for our side. If he ever goes to Fox, I’ll eat a durian fruit. You have no idea how much I’m putting on the line by saying that.

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