CNN; Comedy CentralMr. Fake News just wound up making some real news.
CNN has booted anchor Rick Sanchez after he went off on The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, on a radio show this morning.
So what was the beef?
Appearing on Sirius XM's Stand Up! With Pete Dominick, Sanchez addressed the issue of racism in the media. And that's where things got dicey.
"I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart's a bigot," Sanchez said, noting Stewart's upper middle class suburban upbringining and claiming he was biased against "everybody else that's not like him."
Stewart has frequently mocked Sanchez's reporting on The Daily Show. Apparently Sanchez decided it was time to punch back.
After going off on Stewart, Sanchez then bit the hand that fed him.
"[Stewart]'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."
Bad move?
You bet. It didn't take long for CNN to bring down the hammer.
"Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company," the network said in a statement. "We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well."
Translation: don't let the door hit you on the way out.
(Originally published Oct. 1, 2010, at 4:02 p.m. PT)