Jon Stewart Addresses Rick Sanchez Firing On 'Daily Show' (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart addressed Rick Sanchez's comments and firing on his show Monday night. Sanchez, a former CNN anchor, was fired following statements he made on a radio show calling Stewart a "bigot."

Talking to radio host Pete Dominick, Sanchez attacked "elite, Northeast establishment liberals" who "deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier.

"I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart's a bigot. 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," he said.

When the host shot back saying that Stewart could understand minority oppression because he is Jewish, Sanchez laughed, denying Jews are oppressed and implying they run the media.

Sanchez has been a favorite target of Stewart's in the past. During Rick's coverage of the Chile earthquake, Jon said on his show, "Rick Sanchez delivers the news like a guy at a party who's doing a lot of coke and traps you in a corner and explans REALLY INTENSELY how an ant is the strongest animal on earth." He went on to mock Sanchez for not being able to find Hawaii on a map.

The most common of Stewart's Sanchez jokes revolves around Rick's decision to have himself tased, which he's brought up on occasion for the past three years.

Monday night, Stewart played the radio clip and said "Omigod! Rick Sanchez knows my name!" After some gentle ribbing, Stewart came to Sanchez's defense, showing the CNN host taking on an antisemite. He went on to say "I think the guy's probably got a good heart."

WATCH:

Comments

[nokaoi]

02:16 AM on 10/08/2010

jonny you took the high road.

[Hello Hooray]

01:23 AM on 10/08/2010

I have decided to stop saying anything controversial.

From now on, I will read everyone else's posts and decide what everyone would like to read.

I will become a mirror-bot of the post.

People will like me.

Many people will want to become my "fans" and "followers".

Then I will be awarded all the right "badges" for all the right posts.

My mother will be so proud of me.

[truthisneeded]

01:04 PM on 10/07/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGddBccm5nw&feature=related

[cadawa]

02:16 AM on 10/07/2010

It would save Biden all those trips on Airforce to buy off Karzai when ever he threatens to throw the Americans out.

[Moliere]

10:28 PM on 10/06/2010

gotta say, i loved the black and white bits with stewart in the robe, with the pipe, listening to the old timey radio. that was awersome. then when his eyes pop out -- too much baby, too much. loved it.

[GoHelen]

08:12 PM on 10/06/2010

Fire your cable company and tell them it's because they won't give you a la cart.

[YouDontWantMeHere]

06:52 PM on 10/06/2010

kR@p! ya gotta know this guy's name ta get in good with him!

[Elmnop]

06:16 PM on 10/06/2010

I think it's a good opportunity for people to come out of closet with their prejudices/misconceptions about Jewish people. Jon Stewart probably is no stranger to religious prejudice and this is a chance for him to take the high road and acknowledge that Sanchez said out loud what many people think but maybe they don't say it out loud. Stewart should extend the olive branch to Sanchez . He is obviously someone who has worked hard to overcome his own share of obstacles and there are alot of people out there running him down like a dog. He does not deserve that, he deserves to be forgiven for saying what he thinks even though he's wrong. His comments are mild compared to what somebody like Mel Gibson said. Sanchez doesn't come across as a hater. I agree that Jews aren't "oppressed" in America per se, but the prejudice and misconceptions Are oppressive.

[rel77]

01:08 PM on 10/06/2010

I'm guessing that the folks at CNN were delighted to have an excuse to fire this incredibly inept airhead of a news reader. Given his terrible reputation in Miami I'm amazed they hired him in the first place. Jon Stewart, as always, is a very class act.

[theocrat]

11:28 AM on 10/06/2010

Memo for racist Sanchez : the right-wing bigots hate Hispanics and Cubans also. Why are you acting like them? They will still hate you.

[floridalib]

12:30 PM on 10/06/2010

Noting the fact that people are of different races, and a certain race seems to dominate one area of our society does NOT make you a racist. It makes you a person. You are the bigot for being so closed-minded

[Paul The Octopus]

02:49 PM on 10/06/2010

Agreed.

[theocrat]

02:54 PM on 10/06/2010

You're right. The people who point out the racists are the real racists. People who rant about the Jews can't be racists (Hear that Mel Gibson, you're not a racist). Only people who are appalled by their behavior are the racists.
I forgot we now live in bizzarro tea land, where everything is now the opposite of reality.

[TeacupKitten]

10:46 AM on 10/06/2010

That's the Stewart I love! You just proved yourself a bigger man and stood up for Rick :) Go Stew!

Rick did not get fired for calling Jon a bigot but rather for Jew-baiting. While what he said had spite, he was not lying, there is a big majority of Jews in media, that is where many have made their money. But what is important is that the religion of the person should not matter in business.

[peegan]

04:48 AM on 10/06/2010

I have yet to meet a person who will admit they are a racist or bigot. Not one. I have traveled the world, meeting many a people, and currently live in the south. Yet, not one self admitted racist out there. But here's a clue. If you are repeatedly referred to as a racist or bigot, or even better, find your posting sock on an anti-Semitic watch sight (Yep, a few of you are there) you might want to rethink your thinking.

[jjtx]

08:45 AM on 10/06/2010

They don't say it, but they say it.

I grew up in the South but, in a household, where racism was unacceptable and, certainly, not taught. Not that many years ago in the South, people were very open about their racism and, in more intimate conversations with like-minded (or whom they think is like-minded), they still are open about it. How do I know? I'm one of those people they think are like-minded which is crazy because I have a multi-racial family. When I point that out to them, they say "Oh, well, I don't think of your family that way" or "That's different". "HA! NO, IT IS NOT!" is my reply and then they are not quite as open anymore.

However, they say it even when they don't say it -- In their jokes, in their inflection, in their inability to articulate a reasonable case for how they feel, in their fondness for the good old days, in their opposition to (in one case, a community college) things that might bring "undesirables" closer.

Listen - they won't admit it to an outsider; but, then again, they do.

[peegan]

01:05 PM on 10/06/2010

I have experienced very similar behavior from people. I too am from a multiracial family. What amazes/horrifies me is how free people feel to express certain sentiments around me, even knowing this. I have to believe it is because I don't look multiracial, because I can not imagine the same things being said around my brothers (who do).

What has stunned me about some of these threads is the fact that many posts have lost all but the thinnest of veils that would separate genuine opinion from hate speech. Old canards reemerge, coded language is highly prevalent. But they are just "telling the truth."  Maybe it is the anonymous nature of posting. But to those who do leave such posts and genuinely believe they are not racist or bigoted, I would ask, would you say the same thing, face to face, with a person who is of that ethnicity? Would you feel comfortable expressing the same "truth?"  I don't need to hear your answer, you do.

[Steelsil]

01:32 AM on 10/06/2010

Rick was fired for dissing his bosses in public in a very major way.  Making this about Jon is just dopey.

[lentinelia]

03:11 AM on 10/06/2010

Agreed.
Making it about anti-Se*itism" is equally naive, imo.

Rick's show just stunk.

[peegan]

01:25 AM on 10/06/2010

@ Laughing man



Sanchez didn't call his boss a bigot.

He called Jon Stewart a bigot; NOT CNN or anybody working there.

Calling Jon Stewart, who happens to be a J ew, a bigot (regardless of whether it's true or not), does not mean that you're calling all J ews bigot.

Try paying attention next time.
---------------------------------------------
Yea laughingman, he did. He called Stewart a bigot and then said everyone at CNN was like him. I am genuinely surprised at so many people having trouble following this. It is almost impossible to miss, unless, of course, you are predisposed to miss it.

[LaughingMan]

06:56 AM on 10/06/2010

"Yea laughingman, he did. He called Stewart a b igot and then said everyone at CNN was like him. "

Yes, "like him" meaning J E W I SH.

Not a b igot.

If he meant b igot, he would have said it.
He didn't.

So stop trying to project your own issues and insecurities onto what you think it was he was trying to say, or what you think he meant to say that would conveniently satisfy this scary image you have of him

But then again, one thing we've learnt from this whole episode is that the American education system is in dire need of a serious overhaul when it comes to basic reading and comprehension skills.

Try again.

[peegan]

07:57 AM on 10/06/2010

Well we do agree on one thing, the American educational system is flawed. Good thing I wasn't educated here. As for your sorry little bit of psychoanalysis, I am afraid it is a complete and utter fail. You, however, have made yourself quite transparent.

[MsMassachusetts]

12:29 PM on 10/06/2010

I think you need to spend the next few nights reading Elie Weisels book "Night". Then get back to us. Or not.....

[flossophy]

01:21 AM on 10/06/2010

I hope they leak the whole Sanchez / The Office clip.

That was hilarioso.