Letterman Imagines How Rick Sanchez Could Defend Himself (VIDEO)

David Letterman returned to "The Late Show" last night and got to chime in on the Rick Sanchez debacle that occurred over the weekend.

Admitting that he initially didn't know who Rick Sanchez was, Letterman went through all the possible excuses Sanchez could have for saying that Jon Stewart is a bigot and that Jews run the media. One possible defense included not knowing that "it was possible to get fired from a network no one watches."

We're partial to the excuse that he said those controversial remarks simply because he "accidentally took some of Larry King's heart pills."

WATCH:

Comments

[Aaron Haynes]

05:15 AM on 10/08/2010

It made me watch a 30-second ad before telling me the video had expired. Thanks, CBS.

Actually, every time there's a bit on HuffPo about something from a late night show, it's expired or removed by the time I go to watch it.

[doublehappi]

02:39 PM on 10/08/2010

not sure why you have the issue - i just saw it (from my office - where i sit behind a firewall)

[ActaNonVerba]

04:44 AM on 10/08/2010

American Jews make up only 2% of the population of America. Yet: 46% make over $100,000 per year, they make up 15% of the U.S. Senate, 13% of the U.S. House of Representatives, 67% of members of the Board of the Federal reserve, 33% of the U.S. Supreme Court. Media: Just taking CNN only, 55% of corporate officers for TBS, which owns CNN, are Jewish. On air, Larry King, John King, Howard Kurtz, Eliot Slpitzer, Jeffrey Toobin, Paula Zahn, etc.. Rick Sanchez has nothing to apologize for.

[shriekingviolet]

02:31 PM on 10/08/2010

He has plenty to apologize for. There's a difference between commenting on the great professional achievements of Jewish Americans and suggesting they're a cabal trying to keep the working man down. Those sorts of numbers are exactly what has fueled virulent antisemitism for centuries. For all his ranting and whining, not once during his diatribe did he pause to acknowledge that those "Jews in the media" gave him his shot at success.

[jplanner]

01:04 AM on 10/09/2010

...and I can't recall every hearing it presented as the extraordiary acheivements of Jews (by non Jews). No, it must be only a conspiracy that they are so successful..that must be the only reason.

[bascombe]

11:14 PM on 10/06/2010

#1 audition for FuxNoise.

bingo!!!!

[Michael Mouton]

05:35 PM on 10/06/2010

Perhaps he didn't mean to be antisemitic but he was using an argument often used by antisemitics. For example, if someone started doubting the Holocaust, most people would see that prima facie evidence of antisemitism because of Holocaust denialism's origin with and primary use by antisemites.

[WSS61]

04:02 PM on 10/07/2010

F&F

[rudiy]

10:30 AM on 10/06/2010

Poor Rick. He forgets the "Jews that control CNN" hired him. It must have been because he was an oppressed minority as defined by the US government and needed the help of affirmative action?

I never heard of an American Jew claiming to be an oppressed minority only that they are a minority. A fact.

The only designated minority businesses for government assistance are African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans or Native Americans.

Please point out one Jew who ever claimed in any business he or she should be hired because of affirmative action.

Usually this kind of claim is the claim of a loser who has to blame others for their failures.

[Imhotep40]

01:49 PM on 10/06/2010

You left out Woman-Owned businesses. I'd bet there are American Jewish Woman-Owned businesses that have benefited through certain SBA programs.

Historically, Jewish Americans participated in the Civil Rights protests because their community was discriminated against as recent as 40-years ago. Access to housing, education and employment were restricted irrespective of economic standing.

Your attempt to castigate programs that provide opportunities to under represented minorities as "loser", "blame others for their failures" is not only intellectually lazy, it also illustrates your covert attempt to spin and disguise your racist tendencies.

[WSS61]

04:23 PM on 10/07/2010

I think you misunderstood the the comments posted by rudiy. He/she wasn't referring to any particular ethnicity with his last comment. He/she, was trying to illustrate a point about bigotry; that being the bigots are the ones that make false claims all the time time, especially related to issues such as affirmative action, and other social programs. You went off on a person without thinking through the issue. Then, you went off on Jews in a way that was equally offensive as Sanchez's comments. You need to look at how you say things before you write/speak. You, may actually be viewed as a racist by others as well. Doesn't feel good, does it?

[Michael Mouton]

05:31 PM on 10/06/2010

Yeah, all minorities get hired by explicitly invoking Affirmative Action.--sarcasm

[edgarcaycedoc]

09:14 PM on 10/05/2010

The number one excuse is spot on!

[gumbo1049]

08:04 AM on 10/06/2010

YOU BET

[PlayTOE]

09:59 AM on 10/06/2010

x2

[AlaskanWannaB]

07:13 PM on 10/05/2010

Sanchez said some mean-spirited things about Jews and he should apologize in public. However, since I know he read blogs, twits, and facebook, I'm not going to join forces to call him names and run him into the ground. It's obvious he's thin-skinned for he went Jon Stewart, to no avail. Some people value their reputation above all else. That's all they have. I never thought I would feel sad for Sanchez, but I do. For the past few days, all I've seen is a bunch of name-calling from his peers, the media and posters. Sure, I love to participate to a certain extent...but I reached my limit of mean-spirited hate for someone who does not impact my life one iota. Sanchez attacked Jon Stewart, his "so-called Jewish media bosses," and Jewish people in general. He should apologize to them and I hope his comments did not give rise to undue hurt. However, I believe that the things that we are saying on this blog are hurtful to him and his family. And, yes...I know Sanchez's history...

But, I hope we leave Sanchez alone in the next few days. Haven't we ran him into the ground enough already? I keep thinking of that poor teenager who jumped off the George Washington bridge a week ago. Let's stop the insanity!

[Martha12]

08:42 PM on 10/05/2010

Talk about "running him into the ground!"

Sanchez left his victim near death while he fled the scene, to go home and drink.

THIS man was paralyzed, in a coma for months, and died 5 years later in a nursing home

Mr. Sanchez had already survived what would ordinarily be a career-killer*. While leaving a Miami Dolphins game with his father in 1990, Mr. Sanchez struck a drunken pedestrian, who later died of his injuries.

According to police, Mr. Sanchez’s own blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit (1.5),... and he left the scene before returning more than an HOUR later..

He ultimately pleaded no contest to a D.U.I. charge, but avoided jail time, and even remained on the air.

Asked about the incident, Mr. Sanchez’s Ron Burgundy jocularity vanished in an instant. “I don’t see where that has anything to do with anything,” he said, and called the inquiry

“a hatchet question.”

He soon regained his cool though. “Was it an unfortunate experience? Yes. Was it a learning experience? Absolutely. Do I wish it hadn’t happened? Of course,” he allowed. “I was wrong, because I had a couple of cocktails, because I was over the legal limit,” he went on.

“It could have happened to anybody. …

There were probably a lot of other people leaving the stadium that had had a couple of beers as well.”

http://www.observer.com/2007/rick-sanchez-cnn-s-teflon-man?page=1”

[bisbeeornotbisbee]

10:54 PM on 10/05/2010

Martha, fanned for some very important info.  It really speaks volumes about Sanchez's character and integrity, or rather lack thereof.

[xstevejx]

12:52 AM on 10/07/2010

Not that it excuses him for leaving the scene (which makes NO sense), but the victim was drunk and could have easily been hit by a totally sober person as well, and that's why Rick wasn't considered responsible for the accident.

[Martha12]

08:50 PM on 10/05/2010

Why did Sanchez leave the scene?

His attorney, Richard Essen, now says the anchorman returned home and had “a couple of drinks to calm his nerves” before returning to the scene.

Essen doubts that Sanchez’s DUI charge will ever come to trial. “I think the results of the blood tests will be thrown out,” the lawyer says.

“If the results of the blood tests are suppressed, then there is no evidence against him at all. The state cannot proceed.”

Sanchez offered ZERO financial aid, and did not even bother visiting the man he left paralyzed…

Though Smuzinick’s health insurance policy covers most of his medical costs, it doesn’t pay for rehabilitative care. Family members say unpaid bills for physical therapy now total about $81,000. To save money, they have removed Smuzinick from the clinic’s head-injury program. Using videotapes to learn therapy techniques, friends, relatives, and former co-workers have begun to provide a semblance of the rehabilitation program they can’t afford.

Smuzinick’s fiancee, Jackie Stringhill, says it’s just as well that Sanchez hasn’t paid a visit to Smuzinick since the accident. “I guess his attitude bothers a lot of people. But we have enough to think about. We have our hands full. We don’t really talk about the accident much any more. Anyway,” she adds resignedly, “as far as Sanchez goes, what goes around comes around.

http://www.mofopolitics.com/2009/07/22/cnns-rick-sanchez-hit-and-run-dui-leaves-victim-jeffrey-smuzinick-paralyzed/

[akababs]

06:56 PM on 10/05/2010

i find it very interesting that when Helen Thomas and Rick Sanchez make disparaging remarks about the Jewish people, they are fired instantly, but when similar remarks are made about blacks, it takes a public outrage before anything is done to Imus and Dog the Bounty hunter and then they get back on the air.

[ummm]

06:11 PM on 10/05/2010

if you work in the entertainment industry you can relate to what Sanchez, Stewart, Letterman and Hitchens are saying and they're making a joke out of it. I wonder if people realize how much they benefit from Jewish comedy because Robin Williams never got fired for doing impressions, schtick-

[calee]

05:39 PM on 10/05/2010

If I say Jews control world diamond market, does that make me anti-semitic ?

[HeavyHitter]

06:42 PM on 10/05/2010

It depends. Are you going to write a book about it and call it "My Struggle"?

[Fred Hubner]

06:59 PM on 10/05/2010

lol

[doglove]

09:03 PM on 10/05/2010

maybe if you are a hobbled African slave

[Ant]

07:00 PM on 10/05/2010

If you're saying it out of some stereotype then yes. If Jews actually control the diamond market then no.

Anyway, Jews don't control the media.

[ummm]

07:11 PM on 10/05/2010

define control

[calee]

08:52 PM on 10/05/2010

lets the numbers and names talk ... that list is way short do your own research ...
http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/jews-in-the-media-hollywood/

by the way this is a Jew friendly site ...

[PS Nymn]

05:01 PM on 10/05/2010

The only people who know the *real* reason Rick Sanchez was fired are those who fired him.

[jeanwny]

06:41 PM on 10/05/2010

No mystery,don't diss your bosses!

[PS Nymn]

06:56 PM on 10/05/2010

The CNN honchos may have had Sanchez in their cross-hairs before this incident and were just waiting for a defendable pretext to fire him.

[BrwnSknGurl4]

04:57 PM on 10/05/2010

I have not deciphered all of Sanchez's comments, but plenty of folks call people bigots (and I certainly disagree w/ Sanchez becuz I love JS and he is very progressive and informed). But also, pointing out that Jews run Hollywood and the media...is that anti-semetic? I'm just not sure...Obviously calling for the "end of Jews" or suggesting Jews have nefarious motives is clearly anti-semetic...but pointing out a truth, whether we want to admit it or not...is not really anti-semetic because it just happens to be about Jewish people, is it? I'm just not sure....

[Fred Hubner]

07:03 PM on 10/05/2010

I've never heard anyone complaining about the Catholics ruling the NYPD ... even when it was no more than a corrupt mess ...

[VanTroi]

07:04 PM on 10/05/2010

The term antisemitic is thrown around and misused by people who have no idea who is a semite.

[ummm]

04:42 PM on 10/05/2010

"...that Jews run the media" - impossible to have meaningful, rational debate if deducing broadcast media evolved likely from Hollywood studio system created by Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, Louis Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn who happen to be Jewish, censored- a fact is not a bias, it's a fact. Ridiculous.

[justlw]

07:21 PM on 10/05/2010

Yes, and don't forget the media empire dominated by William Randolph Hearst at about the same time.

Oh wait, he wasn't Jewish.

[ummm]

07:52 PM on 10/05/2010

Hearst's media was publishing- newspapers and magazines, not broadcasting and newspapers are going out of business while broadcast media not so much and all the studios are still alive. Hearst's publications reported on the persecution of Jews in the holocaust when others wouldn't and--- he got kicked out of Harvard for giving his professors toilets-pretty funny guy

[ghee99]

04:41 PM on 10/05/2010

rick may or may not be anti-semetic

i have no idea

but to point out in the course of a conversation that most of the power positions in entertainment (studio heads, studio execs, and producers) are jewish in and of itself is not anti-semetic

why people are making such a big deal out of this is beyond me

[justlw]

07:15 PM on 10/05/2010

Because he didn't say, "hey, here's an interesting demographic quirk: there are lots of jewish people in power positions in entertainment! Think it'll rain today?"

He said that he had a problem because his bosses at CNN were "like Jon Stewart." The implication being that because they were Jewish, this was causing problems for his career.

If he had said his career was in trouble because the Girl Scouts were out to get him, he'd have the same problems.

[Paul The Octopus]

04:24 PM on 10/05/2010

Anti-semitic? Really? Wow! I guess some groups of people are really untouchable!

[justlw]

07:23 PM on 10/05/2010

Why?