Sayonara Sanchez

This week, my thoughts regarding CNN's decision to fire Rick Sanchez for the opinions he stated during a radio interview.

For those who aren't familiar, Sanchez was an anchor on CNN, most known for his "Rick's List" segments. He recently attacked Jon Stewart during a satellite radio interview with stand up comedian Pete Dominick. This all stemmed from Stewart relentlessly poking fun at Rick on Stewart's "The Daily Show" whenever footage of Rick saying something incorrectly or making an error would surface.

Sanchez decided to play the race card and call Stewart a bigot and as someone who "can't relate to what I grew up with". He then referred to the execs at CNN as being "a lot like Stewart", which was probably the nail in the coffin for his career.

Now, I never had a problem with Rick whenever I'd flip through and catch a few minutes of CNN. In fact, I thought he had a pretty good personality and nice charisma - just as good as the other anchors, such as Don Lemon. But, dissing the network you're a part of is definitely a quick way to get canned. Lemon discusses racial issues at CNN all the time, but he focuses on positive change within the African American community. I'm not sure if Sanchez has tried to do the same with his cultures and values, (I know there has been both a "Black in America" and "Latino in America" documentary series) but Sanchez made the wrong call by attacking Stewart. Especially claiming that he can't see a Jewish person not getting a job due to minority status, but that there is discrimination when it comes to being Hispanic. Completely stupid. In our melting pot culture, if you speak English fluently, you can succeed no matter what color you are. I can empathize with Sanchez having a rough childhood, but now that it's 2010, the 'ole days of hardship are over and shouldn't have to be reminisced over and over anymore. I'm also pretty sure that every statistics report I've read in the past few years is talking about how Hispanics will be the majority population by 2020, so that pretty much makes the entire argument pointless anyways.

Regarding Stewart, I love him and know that he's a comedian first and foremost. Even he will admit that. But by getting on his bad side you are doing the equivalent of fanning the flames. He's just going to use that to further mock you, and I guess Sanchez didn't get, or take kindly to, being the butt of repeat jokes. Maybe Stewart should do like Tosh.0 and have Rick as a guest for a "redemption"!

CNN made it clear though - Sanchez is axed. Will he re-surface on MSNBC? I suspect it's a possibility, but only time will tell. They do have Keith Olbermann over there, who loves to express his opinions loud and clear. Could be perfect for Rick!