Rick Sanchez points a dirty finger at Jon Stewart aka "The Bigot"
By: Brendan Patrick Keane | Published Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 2:08 PM | Updated Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 2:08 PM
I honestly thought Rick Sanchez was white. I would never have guessed he was an oppressed "minority."
But that's what the former CNN host has claimed in his bid to represent "everyday Americans" against anyone with any advantage he did not have.
The butt of many Daily Show lampoons for being a goofy journalist--Mr.Sanchez--has finally succumbed to the gravitas of a wounded ego; lashing out at Jon Stewart, Jewish people, physicists, school teachers and anyone smarter than he.
While promoting his aptly titled autobiography/treatise
Conventional Idiocy, Sanchez was reminded, as he talked with Pete Dominick on radio, of his enmity for Jon Stewart, and proffered his theory that the Comedy Central host is a bigot. (huh!?)
Of all comedians to accuse of bigotry, Jon Stewart is the least convincing candidate--unless of course, you ask a Belgian. Poor Belgium doesn't get a break on The Daily Show. On Thursday's Show alone, Stewart made no less than three--three!--waffle jokes about the small nation.
Stewart explained this "bigotry" towards little Belgium was really only that he and his writers were wracking their brains to come up with any Belgium references at all, but could manage no better than waffles.
As a seeming white person, Sanchez may have been upset about the Belgian waffle jokes. Or he may have just been seeking compatriots for his victim complex by scapegoating popularly-resented smart people.
Listening to Rick Sanchez's case against Stewart is cringe-worthy, because we live in a meritocracy, where the hierarchy is determined in a big way by merit. Some resent the kids that had good study habits, or who come from families where talk about physics and anything else in the world, is normal family time conversation.
Sanchez's rationalizations of persecution and his dirty finger-pointing is just more of his trade-mark sloppiness.
Anti-semitism is a strangely problematic danger because it targets just some of those that succeed in the meritocracy. Success in this society stems from many factors, including bookish upbringing, study habits, testing skills, analytical dialogue tradition, unabashed curiosity, personal achievement and many other successful traits that are associated with that tired old target of ancient hate narratives, "the Jews."
Sanchez chose the usual and wrong target--a tiny group of people that won't put up with that shit anymore.
Of all comedians to accuse of bigotry, Jon Stewart is the least convincing candidate--unless of course, you ask a Belgian. Poor Belgium doesn't get a break on The Daily Show. On Thursday's Show alone, Stewart made no less than three--three!--waffle jokes about the small nation.
Stewart explained this "bigotry" towards little Belgium was really only that he and his writers were wracking their brains to come up with any Belgium references at all, but could manage no better than waffles. 
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.downinthebasement | Oct 15, 2010, 02:53 PM EDT
Dennis...what is this "we"..."We," you say... The Irish don't give a farthing to Israel. So you don't want Israel funded by the USA...OK...fine... I don't want Irish immigration into my country...the USA...and I would suggest the United Kingdom...my mother country...stop subsidizing Ireland... Without British military protection...Ireland would have to foot the bill... You do know that Ireland is protected and subsidized by the British armed forces and government. Yes, stop Irish immigration into Israel...there are too many "Zionists," as you say, and too many "Angles"...you will be happier in the Emerald Isle...where you can count your rosary beads in peace...and not have to mix with "them."
Monsoonman | Oct 11, 2010, 08:32 PM EDT
There is a reason I am # 3 on Google Dennis me boy.....Glad to hear My Israeli Brothers and Sisters are turning their swords into electronic plowshares, I would hope Egypt would take their swords and rebuild my favorite resort on the Red Sea to its previous splendor, the Taba Hilton, which was blown up by their jihadis.
DennisQ | Oct 11, 2010, 01:10 AM EDT
Carter did not start the lavish subsidies to Israel, Monsoonman. They started as early as 1949, and have increased annually ever since. When I Googled "Israel subsidy Carter" I was amazed that your contribution to this thread was in the top five - ahead of Mearsheimer and Walt!
I did learn that Israel uses American tax money to subsidize high tech research and development. That certainly gives that industry a competitive advantage over Route 128 in Massachusetts, and indeed over similar companies located in Ireland. Perhaps the Celtic Tiger lost out because Irish companies couldn't develop new products as inexpensively as their Israeli competitors.
DennisQ | Oct 11, 2010, 12:59 AM EDT
The Irish do have some experience with partition, their own "two-state solution," hancock. It's not a model worth replicating. However, the Irish experience might be called the "one-border solution."
Instead of having to cross a number of checkpoints, the Palestinians would only have to cross one. And come to think of it, it's not anywhere near as burdensome to cross between Fermanagh and Leitrim as it is for Arab workers to get to their jobs.
So maybe the Irish experience is worth replicating in Israel. Up the border!
hancock | Oct 10, 2010, 02:56 PM EDT
If the Irish had cared one iota about the Aparthied state up the road as they care about the Arabs and the Jews you might have a point Dennis.
Monsoonman | Oct 10, 2010, 01:03 PM EDT
Dennis, tell the rest of the story: Your president carter is the one who started the payments, Israel and Egypt each get paid to not wage war on each other. Evidently US policy feels it is important to have peace between egypt/israel. I'll add that carter gave iran over to the radical muslim movement when he helped kick out the shah and installed the ayatollah khomenini/ achmadenajad. We have a nuclear Iran today thanks to do-gooder jimmy carter and the rest of the liberals....If the iran/iraq war would still be going on, the crazy zealots would be killing each other rather than spreading jihadism around the world. But the liberals stopped that with the Iran contra hearings.
DennisQ | Oct 10, 2010, 05:30 AM EDT
How many apartheid states are there in the world, hancock? If there were even one other, the United States would lead boycotts against it.
The Zionist experiment is special only because of the well-documented effectiveness of the Israel lobby. Any politician who even questions our lavish $3 billion annual subsidy is targeted for defeat. As a result, the politicians trip all over each other swearing allegiance to Israel. It's a pathetic display of subservience, one that not even the so-called "liberal" media will take note of. Think Rachel Maddow wants to risk being taken off the air? Think again.
hancock | Oct 09, 2010, 04:21 PM EDT
We give an annual subsidy to a lot of states apartheid or not, just wonder why the obsession with the Jews is all. Maybe you can answer me better with your next Psych lesson.
DennisQ | Oct 08, 2010, 03:52 PM EDT
More Freudian terminology, hancock. Wait till you take Psych 102, you'll discover lots more things you can say to amaze and astound your friends.
This same conversation about Jews is happening all over. We're told that we don't have any business in Israel's affairs - we should butt out. However, we're paying an annual subsidy of $3 billion, and running political interference for an apartheid state.
It's not an obsession, it's more like a quandary. I'm waiting for a rationale to continue to carry these people even though they're perfectly capable of making it on their own.
hancock | Oct 08, 2010, 01:39 PM EDT
Who knew an Irish newspaper could be so obsessed with Jews?
Monsoonman | Oct 08, 2010, 09:49 AM EDT
Dennis, you forgot to mention Adam Sandler & Winona Laura Horowitz.
DennisQ | Oct 08, 2010, 03:49 AM EDT
The Nobel Peace Prize is always something of a crapshoot whether the recipient will prove to be worthy of it or not. Menachem Begin won it without delivering lasting peace; as did Yassir Arafat. Kenry Kissinger, another recipient, has to stay out of a number of countries that have indictments waiting for him as soon as he steps off the plane. You may or may not believe David Trimble or Le Duc Tho were worthy recipients.
The Nobel categories are too restrictive to recognize the accomplishments of people who don't fit easily into Economics or Physics or Chemistry. There are a number of mathematicians whose contributions to computer science truly revolutionized the world. Neither John Neumann nor Kurt Godel won a Nobel Prize, and Alan Turing was driven to suicide because he was gay. Norbert Wiener's work did not go unrecognized, but he didn't win the Nobel Prize, and neither did Gottlob Frege . . . who died believing his important contribution to symbolic logic was disproven. Among living mathematicians who deserve the Nobel Prize - but won't get one - is Stephen Wolfram, inventor of Mathematica and a major contributor to the theory of cellular automata.
These non-Laureates actually changed the direction of science, unlike a number of awardees who merely happened upon a felicitous result. Incidentally, von Neumann, Wiener and Wolfram are Jewish.
Monsoonman | Oct 08, 2010, 12:11 AM EDT
DennisQ. There is a long long list of Jews in the noble prize winner hall of fame in math and science, where it actually takes ability to earn one. Not like the kind they "gifted" your nobel prize winner, obama.
DennisQ | Oct 07, 2010, 11:29 PM EDT
There's no such thing as "the Jews" until you cross them. Then you find out. Ronan Tynan made a small joke about having Jewish neighbors, and "the Jews" ruined him. He was fired immediately from his job singing God Bless America for the Yankees, and then he couldn't find work in New York. He had to move away.
Gregg Whiteside, WQXR's popular longtime host of its Morning Show, said something that offended "the Jews" and was never heard from again. For a group that supposedly doesn't exist, they sure have a way of making themselves known, especially to people who piss them off.
PolinDeB | Oct 06, 2010, 10:47 PM EDT
@Rebelforce Actually he'd probably become Muslim if there was enough money involved...
PolinDeB | Oct 06, 2010, 10:46 PM EDT
@Rebelforce His name is Rupert Murdoch.. and he's an Australian who became American to take control of your media, though he could become Chinese if there's enough money in it for him ;0
mmccreedy | Oct 05, 2010, 10:26 PM EDT
correction- maybe the American public woudn't have to WATCH their pathetic rantings.
mmccreedy | Oct 05, 2010, 10:22 PM EDT
That's like the pot calling the kettle black. What a bunch of bigots - neither one has a clue. Now if Bill Maher, Rachel Maddow, and the other clueless wonders were axed maybe the American public would actually WATCH their pathetic ranting.
maloney | Oct 04, 2010, 04:58 PM EDT
Sanchez sucked. He should have been fired a long time ago. good article Brendan.
DrTrelawney | Oct 04, 2010, 02:45 PM EDT
Hergé, Hercule Poirot, Jacques Brel, Georges Simenon, fine beer, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Audrey Hepburn, Django Reinhardt? Come on, Stewart. There's plenty to celebrate -- and ridicule -- about the excellent country that is Belgium.
GeorgeDillon | Oct 04, 2010, 02:43 PM EDT
Keane: You are what the Irish would call a waster. You have nothing to offer. Go Away.
DennisQ | Oct 04, 2010, 01:41 PM EDT
Did you hear the interview, Brendan? Rick Sanchez didn't imply all the things attributed to him, and pulling quotes out of context is unfair. For example, he didn't lash out at school teachers, physicists or Northeast Jews. He simply said that people who grow up in the privileged white suburbs aren't minorities in the sense that is commonly understood.
You're wrong about the American "meritocracy." In many ways, young Americans' career options are already determined before they're on their own. For example, every member of the Supreme Court went to an Ivy League college - is that a coincidence?
Dublinjas | Oct 04, 2010, 01:16 PM EDT
Brendan Patrick Keane.....Suck up
Rebelforce | Oct 04, 2010, 12:42 PM EDT
CORRECTION: We USED to live in a meritocracy. That was forty years ago. Today we live in the era of Affirmative Action programs and "cultural and ethnic diversity". If it's okay for Rick Sanchez to point out that there are "too many" white NY firefighters with names like McMahon and Flanagan and more should be done to hire people named Robinson, Perez, Patel, Chang and Cohen, (regardless of their ability) why is it wrong when Sanchez suggests we might need some cultural and ethnic diversity in who controls America's newsmedia?
mydoghasfleas | Oct 04, 2010, 11:12 AM EDT
Loved this summary. Very smart and to the point and I wholeheartedly agree.