Rick Sanchez

Phillip Weiss suggests that Rick Sanchez was fired partly for his sympathetic coverage of Palistinians, citing this clip above. But that was January of 2009. If it's just based on his recent comments on Jews CNN's dumping him is clearly unfair, especially if you use Lou Dobb's years of immigrant baiting as a yardstick.

His comments on Jon Stewart are more problematic. I admit I haven't watched Stewart in a while and I don't know to what extent Stewart went after him, but I'm inclined to think Sanchez was being unfair in calling him a bigot. In the audio clip below it sounded at first as if he was edging towards a broader critique of US oligarchic groupthink which might include unwavering support for wars of empire, but then he threw that "northeast intellectual elite" bit in and seemed to settle into a groove. Of course he would have to take CNN and the news media establishment to task as well if he attacked Stewart for that.Then again, maybe he wanted to be fired. I often wonder that when I hear of a high-profile individual's missteps in an interview.(Gawker,audio clip)