Jon STEWART eviscerates Rick SANCHEZ over tsunami coverage (video link)

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http://tv.gawker.com/5483354/jon-stewart-eviscerates-rick-sanchez-over-tsunami-coverage

Jon Stewart Eviscerates Rick Sanchez Over Tsunami Coverage

On Saturday, we brought you the news of Rick Sanchez's stupid, sanctimonious and downright infuriating coverage on CNN of the Chilean earthquake and near-worldwide tsunami warning. Tonight, Jon Stewart brilliantly took Sanchez to task, and it was EPIC. Video inside.

In under four minutes, Stewart managed to:

* Mock Sanchez's confusion at the smallest, most obvious piece of common sense,

* point out that Sanchez identified the Galapagos Islands as Hawaii,

* again make note of Sanchez's infuriating confusion at anything and everything,

* hilariously comment on Sanchez's "Nine meters in English is...?" statement,

* show how much of an unnecessary dick Sanchez was to the on-set oceanographer,

* compare Sanchez to a coked up guy at a party who corners you and tries to explain—really intensely—that the ant is the strongest animal in existence (for its size),

* and work in footage of Sanchez being tasered.

Well done, Mr. Stewart. Well done.




Send an email to Matt Cherette, the author of this post, at [e-mail].

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1. Rick's inner idiot re-emerges

For years (except the last couple) he has been an industry joke. Too bad I lost my SANCHEZ file in a computer crash. His appalling performances date back to the Elian days. But aside from the scary and disastrous DWI car crash, he was known for bizarrely ignorant blurtings on the air and antics like having himself tasered into a babbling puddle.

So there have been at least two mysteries about him: 1) How he has been re-hired in one venue after another, from local, to MSNBC, to CNN, and possibly all of them more than once, and 2) How in his most recent incarnation on CNN he has enjoyed a very warm following here on DU. I don't know because I've never seen his new Self, but I gather that he deserved this praise because of some Keith-like pronouncements against Rethugs and confrontations with them.

Anyway, apparently Demon Math has once again summoned his inner Airhead from its pod.


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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Sanchez

.... Although he initially thrived at WSVN, Sanchez originally left the station when it was discovered that 1985 wiretaps recorded him trading favors with Alberto San Pedro, a self-proclaimed political fixer described by police as "a major corrupter in Hialeah" and who following a federal grand jury indictment for bribery of a federal public official and conspiracy to commit bribery, pled guilty to the conspiracy charge. ....

Sanchez is known for immersing himself into his stories. He has been submerged in water inside a car to explain how to best escape a sinking vehicle, been shocked by a "shock belt" to explain firsthand how overpowering the device could be when placed on prisoners, been subjected to waterboarding for a story about the controversial interrogation/torture technique, and been left atop a snow-covered mountain overnight to help explain what would be needed to survive the elements should one get stranded. His style has been parodied by Saturday Night Live (NBC) and The Daily Show.<3> ....

Controversy

On December 10, 1990, Sanchez struck a pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, with his car on a residential street near Dolphin Stadium .<5> Smuzinick was paralyzed and eventually died in an assisted living facility in 1995.<5><3> Sanchez had just left an NFL football game with his father when the accident occurred, and he fled the scene of the accident, not to return until hours later. Police officers at the scene later reported that he smelled strongly of alcohol, and when tested, he registered a blood alcohol content of .15. He was not charged with causing the accident, but was charged with and pleaded no contest to DUI. ....

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