A week after being fired from his daytime cable news television slot, Rick Sanchez is saying the two most difficult words in the English language — “I’M SORRY!”
In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” last Friday, Rick Sanchez apologized for slamming his bosses at CNN and for calling Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart a “bigot.” His on-air apology follows a personal apology Sanchez made to Stewart by telephone earlier in the week. Sanchez explained that at the time, he was exhausted from weeks of double duty at the network, and that “my daughter had a softball game I desperately wanted to go to, and I was a little impatient. I said some things I shouldn’t have said. They were wrong. Not only were they wrong, they were offensive.”
Sanchez, who was born in Cuba and has been with CNN since 2004, was host of the two-hour “Rick’s List” during CNN’s afternoon lineup. But he was also hosting a prime-time version of the show during recent months in preparation for a new show featuring former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and columnist Kathleen Parker. According to Sanchez, the weeks of double duty, combined with lack of sleep as well as being a father to several young children, led to his on-air meltdown.
Sanchez atoned for his remarks, but also made sure to point out the invisible “landscape” of cable news prime-time hosts: “There’s not a single Hispanic, a single Asian-American, or a single African-American” in prime-time. But, “I’m not trying to make excuses,” Sanchez summed up.
