By now everyone knows that Rick Sanchez has been canned by CNN. Sanchez is the real-life Ted Baxter-ish anchor who, among other things, called Barack Obama “our cotton-picking president,” and who didn’t know how long nine meters was and thought that volcanoes only happened in warm places.
He is a classic, blow-dry, airhead, newsreader masquerading as a “serious newsperson.” It was to CNN’s shame that they put him in the position of anchor and to their everlasting shame that they kept him there for even a day.
But now he’s been canned for saying he’s held back because he’s Latino. That and calling Jon Stewart a bigot. And for scoffing at the idea that Jews are a “powerless minority.” And for referring to “white folks.” And for generally being a whiny bitch. (And for being so stunningly dumb as to not realize that he’s stunningly dumb… and that’s the reason Stewart goes after him– and not because of his last name or where he was born.) The more Sanchez talks, the more he reveals himself to be paranoid, bitter and not much of a big thinker.
Why talk about it here? Because he targeted a standup comic (Stewart) and because he made the remarks that led to his dismissal on a show hosted by a comedian– Pete Dominick host of the XMSirius show, “Stand Up! with Pete Dominick.”
Listen to the interview. (Part 1 is embedded below… Part 2 is right at the top of the righthand column on Youtube. The comments are particularly entertaining.) Even Dominick knows that he’s got a bombshell on his hands– he even alludes to the fact in mid-interview. He handles the interview very well. Dominick, you’ll recall, got a red envelope on Last Comic Standing a few years back but passed on going to the semifinals rather than give up his radio gig– or at least that was the word on the street at the time. The Sanchez interview will, no doubt, make Dominick more visible.
Dominick’s reaction to Sanchez’ giggling dismissal of the idea of Jews being an oppressed minority is priceless. And it’s jaw-dropping to listen as “Trainwreck” Sanchez finds himself in a hole… and keeps digging.
It’s 20:33 total, but it’s worth listening to the whole thing. Dominick lays on the “I’m glad I got to know you” stuff a little thick at the end, but I think part of that might be his appreciation that Sanchez might have boosted his career by saying outrageous stuff on his show. (Sanchez might have said the stuff because he’s so utterly unaware that, in this age of social media and viral video and audio clips, even remarks made on a satellite radio show can quickly surface and tank your career. Duh!
You’d think that, after Allan Burns and James L. Brooks so effectively skewered news anchors that no network would dare hire someone as obviously pompous and boneheaded as Sanchez. You’d be wrong.
