WASHINGTON (JTA) — CNN fired anchorman Rick Sanchez after he suggested that Jews run the news business.
Sanchez made his remarks in a freewheeling exchange Sept. 30 with Pete Dominick, a Latino stand-up comedian and radio show host who is friends with Jon Stewart, the faux-news Comedy Central star who has made Sanchez’ robust style the butt of many jokes.
Sanchez, a native of Cuba, alleged that Stewart singled him out because of white bigotry.
Dominick pushed back, saying that Stewart, because he is Jewish, is himself a member of a minority.
"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," he said.
On Oct. 1, Sanchez’s 3 p.m. broadcast did not appear. At 6 p.m., in a short statement, CNN said he no longer worked for the network.
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