Rick Sanchez Fired by CNN

“Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company,” according to a statement from CNN. “We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.”

Less than 24 hours before this statement, the anchor of Cuban descent participated in a satellite radio interview for his book “Conventional Idiocy” in which he argues that Americans have tired of politics and traditional journalism. Sanchez called Jon Stewart “intolerant.” Over the last few weeks, Stewart and comedian Stephen Colbert have centered many of their jokes around the CNN star.

The CNN anchor said that Stewart and Colbert are “elite, Northeast establishment liberals” of the country. And he added what he thinks of Stewart: “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.”

The statements were made precisely on the last day that Sanchez was presenting one of his sections during the time slot with the largest audience, which will now be a special daily look at politics. During the interview, Sanchez also mentioned the fact that Stewart is Jewish. When the radio commentator mentions that Stewart, like Sanchez, also is a minority, the anchor laughed.

“Very powerless people … He’s such a minority, I mean, you know … Please, what are you kidding? … 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, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah,” Sanchez stated. Later he expressed his doubts that a person would not find a job for being Jewish.

“It’s not just the right that does this. ‘Cause I’ve known a lot of elite, Northeast establishment liberals that may not use this as a business model, but deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they look at a … they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier and not the top tier,” Sanchez continued. He also shared a personal experience, in which one of the directors of CNN told him that looked more like a reporter — referencing a Hispanic reporter for ABC — and not an anchor. “’Cause in his mind, I can’t be an anchor — an anchor’s what you give the high-profile white guys.”

Sanchez is one of the CNN anchors who has paid close attention to the social media networks and to the comments that television viewers leave on his blog. On his show, “Rick’s List” — with a section, “Photos of the Day,” titled in Spanish — Sanchez comments on a selection of news of the day, combined with reactions from social media networks. Hours after his dismissal, however, Sanchez did not publish a message in reference to the interview that took place yesterday nor regarding his leaving CNN in his Twitter profile. It only announced that a program will not air.

Despite his silence, it is already a topic of discussion on the social media scene and promises to be one of the most publicized terminations in the U.S. tonight. There are those who ask if they dismissed him for speaking the truth about the American media. Or why certain reporters of Fox News still have their jobs after calling Obama a racist.