Rick Sanchez says the darnedest things.. and gets fired

[Mr Bean]

Rick, you stay classy in your future endeavors

CBS News

Update, 6:14 p.m. Eastern Time: CNN has released a statement that Sanchez "is no longer with the company."
"We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well," it reads. Original story below...

On a radio program on Thursday, Rick Sanchez, the CNN anchor and host of Rick's List, said he thought Comedy Central's Jon Stewart was a "bigot," and nd seemed to suggest that "everybody who runs CNN" is Jewish.

Sanchez, during the course of a 20 minute interview on comedian (and regular CNN contributor) Pete Dominick's SiriusXM radio show, spoke about the discrimination he has felt as a Cuban-American over the course of his career, and decried what he called "elite, Northeast establishment liberals" like Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Stewart and Colbert, he said, are among those who say "I like black people and Mexicans as long as they're, 'here, let me tap you on the head. Way to go, Ricky, you're doing a good job.'"

"I think Jon Stewart's a bigot," Sanchez said. "I think he looks at the world through his mom, who was a school teacher, 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 you could ever imagine."

When asked by radio host Pete Dominick (who used to work as a warm-up comic for the Daily Show) against whom he thought Stewart was bigoted, Sanchez said, "everybody else who's not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?"

Dominick pointed out that as a Jew, Stewart was also a minority - to which Sanchez responded, snickering, "Please, what are you kidding?.. Yeah, a very powerless people."

"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," Sanchez said. "To imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah."

Sanchez later tempered his comments, retracting his use of the word "bigot" and instead calling the Daily Show "essentially prejudicial - against anyone who doesn't agree with his point of view, which is very much a white liberal establishment point of view."

So lets review, Rick says a dumb thing, a controversial thing and then a very dumb thing.
Dumb thing? John Stewart is a bigot because he surrounds himself with... the people who he surronds himself with.
Controversial thing? The Jews are not an oppressed minority in the media.
The very dumb thing? The way he said the controversial thing of course.

Is it fair to say that being Jewish means your not going to get discriminated against? No... discrimination is everywhere, however being a Jew in Hollywood your much less likely to run into it than as say... a construction foreman in Gaza. By that I mean that Hollywood your much more likely to be discriminated against based on your physical appearance... not your religion. And it's even fair to say that Jews are not unrepresented in the media. However... well... there's ways you can say that and get that point across. And not sound like a raging anti-Semite conspiracy theorist.

[Temujin]

I don't watch CNN, but I think I saw this idiot while sitting in the dentist's waiting room.

After some searching, I realize who this douche is. For those not familiar, some of his greatest hits:

[Eframepilot]

The Daily Show on Monday should be pretty good, with material like this.

[Aaron]

Iceland is to cold for a volcano?

Good god man, I had maybe one semesters worth of geology in high school and even I know why that makes no sense.

[MKSheppard]

Jews (Ace Pace et al): 1 - Rick Sanchez: 0

[hongi]

Controversial thing? The Jews are not an oppressed minority in the media.

It's true isn't it? Minority in terms of numbers, not a minority in the media.

[Dominus Atheos]

Controversial thing? The Jews are not an oppressed minority in the media.

It's true isn't it? Minority in terms of numbers, not a minority in the media.

What?

In case you didn't know Jon Stewart's real name is Jonathan Leibowitz, but he felt he had to take a different stage name because he was concerned about prejudice against Jews in the media world.

[hongi]

He began using the stage name "Jon Stewart" by dropping his last name and changing the spelling of his middle name "Stuart" to "Stewart." He often jokes this is because people had difficulty with the pronunciation of Leibowitz or it "sounded too Hollywood" (a reference to Lenny Bruce's joke on the same theme).[19] He has implied that the name change was actually due to a strained relationship with his father with whom Stewart no longer has any contact.[16]

Wikipedia.

[wautd]

To cold for a volcano? What? Did they found this guy while filming Idiocracy?

[Drone]

Mel Brooks changed his name from Melvin Kaminsky because his name was too Jewish, Woody Allen and Larry King did the same thing. It's not that uncommon unfortunately, especially in the older generations because the supposed control that we have over the media isn't really there.

[hongi]

Mel Brooks changed his name from Melvin Kaminsky because his name was too Jewish, Woody Allen and Larry King did the same thing. It's not that uncommon unfortunately, especially in the older generations because the supposed control that we have over the media isn't really there.

Doesn't mean Jews are a minority in the media. There are a metric fuckton of Jews in the media. The idea that they're the equivalent of say, blacks or Hispanics, is laughable.

[xerex]

I am going to take a risk and say i see Sanchez's point.

are Jews really an oppressed minority in the US today ? id say that along with the Irish and Italians, Jews have become accepted as "American" today.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Really? In the high school I taught at, the term "jew" was still thrown around in a derogatory manner, as was the n-word. No one ever called anyone else "Irish" or "Italian" as an insult, though.

In my own experience, I have dealt with a lot of low-level religious bigotry for being Jewish. Nothing so appalling as a hate crime or on-the-job harassment, but there is definitely an attitude that Jews are part of the "other" category in America. It has also affected my social life, friendships and dating history (both positively and negatively, as I've met some girls who refuse to date non-Christians as well as some shiksas who love the Jews). I have a fairly goyish appearance and last name, though, so I can "pass", but it isn't so easy for Jews who really stand out.

[fgalkin]

I am going to take a risk and say i see Sanchez's point.

are Jews really an oppressed minority in the US today ? id say that along with the Irish and Italians, Jews have become accepted as "American" today.

Oh, really?

New York, NY, October 29, 2009 … A nationwide survey of the American people released today by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) finds anti-Semitic attitudes equal to the lowest level in all the years of taking the pulse of the American attitudes toward Jews.

The survey found that 12% of Americans hold anti-Semitic views, a decline from 15% in 2007 and matching lowest figure ever recorded by ADL, in 1998. In its 1964-benchmark survey 29% of Americans were categorized as having anti-Semitic views.

The 2009 Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews, a national telephone survey of 1,200 American adults, was conducted September 26-October 4, 2009 by Marttila Communications of Washington, D.C. and Boston. The margin of error is +/- 2.8%.

Mr. Foxman added "that even in this 2009 good news survey, some bad news remains a constant, such as 30% believing that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America, 29% believing that Jews are responsible for the death of Christ. Equally of concern is that more than a quarter of African-Americans -- 28% -- hold anti-Semitic beliefs and more than a third of foreign born Hispanics --35% --have such attitudes."

Source. Here's their list of index statements used to measure anti-Semitism.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[hongi]

Anti-Semitism is no longer (publicly) acceptable in politics, entertainment and the media, but it's still around everywhere else.

[Slacker]

Ehhhhh...now, I say this living in New York, and recognizing it's not the same everywhere, but Jews aren't discriminated against here in NY. To be fair, they're also not functionally a minority here.

Now, I fully realize that doesn't hold true everywhere in the country. But I know a number of Jews who believe it's better living here than in Israel. Hell, I'm married to one.

[Maj]

Not that I'm trying to say that they're commensurate, but I got flack from my step-father's parents, and my father's side of the family because I decided to honor my Italian heritage (thanks, Mom!) by naming my son Giovanni.

It was a huge uproar that had nasty eMails floating around informing me of how my son would never be competitive in the job market because of his name, so I was condemning him to a life of poverty and unemployment. I was accused of being unpatriotic and anti-American. It was a really big deal.

So while prejudice against mainstream white ethnicities might not be overt, it's still there.

[The Dark]

Ehhhhh...now, I say this living in New York, and recognizing it's not the same everywhere, but Jews aren't discriminated against here in NY. To be fair, they're also not functionally a minority here.

Now, I fully realize that doesn't hold true everywhere in the country. But I know a number of Jews who believe it's better living here than in Israel. Hell, I'm married to one.

The only city in the world with more Jewish people than New York is Tel Aviv. For the rest of the US, under 2% of the population is Jewish. Unless you're in the extreme southwest (CA, south NV, AZ), the northeast (MD and further north), or Florida, there probably aren't many Jews in the area. So no, not only does it not hold true everywhere in the country, it doesn't hold true anywhere in the country except New York City and Miami.

When we invaded Iraq, both Democratic senator Ernest Hollings and Pat Buchanan claimed it was influenced by the Jewish members of the Bush administration and Bush's desire to get more Jewish votes, since it would be seen as benefiting Israel.

This is purely anecdotal, so it's not "evidence" of anti-Semitism, but I've been in a situation where I've felt I needed to hide portions of my heritage (I'm half-Jewish and part Turkish) from people in my neighborhood. It's only happened once, and it was about 10 years ago, but it was something I experienced, despite living in an area with above-average Jewish heritage.

[Thanas]

As expected, the Daily Show video of Sanchez was hilarious, especially with footage of Sanchez calling a person a [url=http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=15661]bigot for saying the same things Sanchez did. [/quote]

[Slacker]

The only city in the world with more Jewish people than New York is Tel Aviv. For the rest of the US, under 2% of the population is Jewish. Unless you're in the extreme southwest (CA, south NV, AZ), the northeast (MD and further north), or Florida, there probably aren't many Jews in the area. So no, not only does it not hold true everywhere in the country, it doesn't hold true anywhere in the country except New York City and Miami.

That is why I qualified myself with the 'They're not functionally a minority here'. You raise an excellent point, I was just really offering an anecdotal view of how things are here.

[Drone]

The only city in the world with more Jewish people than New York is Tel Aviv. For the rest of the US, under 2% of the population is Jewish. Unless you're in the extreme southwest (CA, south NV, AZ), the northeast (MD and further north), or Florida, there probably aren't many Jews in the area. So no, not only does it not hold true everywhere in the country, it doesn't hold true anywhere in the country except New York City and Miami.

That is why I qualified myself with the 'They're not functionally a minority here'. You raise an excellent point, I was just really offering an anecdotal view of how things are here.

12% of the population and that's including people who claim to be of Jewish descent, isn't functionally a minority? That's the percentage of Jews in NYC as of the latest demographic info. Just because you see a fair number doesn't mean they're still not a minority.

[Slacker]

They're not treated as a minority in the same sense Germans, Italians or Irish aren't treated as a minority, I guess? The point I was trying to make is that the vast, overwhelming majority of New Yorkers don't really give a rat's ass that someone's Jewish, it's like making a big deal that someone's Irish or whatever. For the most part, unless we're talking the first generation of immigrants from Eastern Europe, they generally identify as white people that go to a different church. And most of those first generation immigrants define themselves by their Jewishness primarily because they weren't able to practice their religion freely where they came from-their kids don't see the big deal.

Of course, anecdotal evidence, blah blah. I was making an observation, not defending a thesis. Completely missed here is another opportunity to point out how stupid Rick Sanchez was on TV.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Slacker, you have to realize that things are very different in a city the rest of the country derisively calls "Jew York" than they are anywhere else. Where I live, Jews aren't white people who go to a different church. They are sinning plotters who reject Christ. I've actually met people who believed in the Blood Libel, and I'm a half-hour drive from Hollywood. My childhood friends used to mention that Jews killed Jesus myth all the time. The suburb next door to mine is famous for its high Neo-Nazi and Skinhead populations, and yet California is the "Left-Wing Hippie State who Hates America".

There is still plenty of prejudice in America. Count yourself very lucky that you happen to live in one of the most cosmopolitan, progressive cities in the country.

[Bottlestein]

^ I got a little bit of this in high school - though Iowa is a lot better than most states in the midwest. The funny thing is I was not really raised Jewish - not really religious at all - but my parents were always sort of "outsiders".

However, the amount of persecution a "visible" minority would get in some of these states (different skin color / appearance) is probably more than someone who is Jewish would get, unless you are in some of the neo - Nazi type places.

Incidentally - "Bottlestein" isn't my actual last name, and it's not an actual Jewish name

[Rogue 9]

As expected, the Daily Show video of Sanchez was hilarious, especially with footage of Sanchez calling a person a bigot for saying the same things Sanchez did.

What does the forum policy have to do with the Daily Show?