CNN Back-stabs Rick Sanchez During Infomercial Disguised as a Show

Former CNN Correspondent Jamie McIntyre 

A lot has been made of what CNN Reliable Sources Host Howard Kurtz called the “strange stunt of getting tased.”  By now most of you have seen the bit where former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez gets tasered at a Miami Police Academy as all recruits are forced to do before being able to carry the weapon.  Although the story could be considered funny if you edit the piece where Rick Sanchez gets tasered and run it over and over again, let’s not forget he was a correspondent at the time cutting his teeth at CNN.  His job was to report on current events.  Many Americans believe that tasering someone is inhumane.  They believe it causes permanent damage.  Rick Sanchez was trying to prove otherwise.  He was demonstrating although police officers may have to use the weapon to subdue an offender, the lasting affects are minimal at best, and it beats other alternatives.

It was a low blow for the network to have as a topic, “Should Rick Sanchez have been fired by CNN?,” and then to stack the deck with three panelists who adamantly said he was a “blow-hard,” had no business being on the network in the first place, and said his suggestion that “he felt uncomfortable at CNN because he was a Hispanic was delusional,” totally dismissing any prejudices Sanchez may have been the victim of during his life.

The show also spliced together some of Sanchez’s gaffes ala Jon Stewart’s show.  Stewart himself could not have done it better.  They then gave face time to Jon Stewart by airing many of the comments that obviously enraged Sanchez, especially one suggesting Sanchez might be on coke, because of the way he reports the news.  The panel never discussed if the comments made by Stewart ever crossed the line. 

Rick Sanchez did everything the network asked him to do.  In the end, he was kicked to the curb, only to be replaced by an ex-governor who was busted sleeping around with prostitutes.  What does former CNN correspondent Jamie McIntyre say about Sanchez’s dismissal and the hiring of Elliott Spitzer?  “CNN is better off.”  McIntyre went on to say during CNN’s infomercial style panel show that “CNN was a place that celebrated diversity.”  Maybe he should ask why CNN does not have a single Hispanic anchor on air.