Blasting Rick Sanchez…

The North Star Writers Group’s Lawrence J Haas has CNN’s Rick Sanchez in his sights…but can’t spell Ashleigh Banfield’s name apparently…

For the next hour, starting at 3 p.m. last Friday, Sanchez led coverage of three stories – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s defiant news conference, confirmation of Caylee Anthony’s remains in Florida and a traffic mishap in Seattle that left a bus dangerously close to falling over a busy highway.

Even more than usual for the hour Sanchez holds court, this one was loud, fast-paced, disjointed, colorful and banal – replete with on-camera commentary by CNN’s Roland Martin, Mike Brooks and Ashley Banfield and a bevy of outside “experts,” as well as on-line public participation – and it reflected much that’s increasingly wrong with America’s media.

Sanchez personifies far more than media’s descent, however. He epitomizes a cultural infantilizing that corrodes our capacity for deliberation. At just the time we need to get serious – with our economy in turmoil and our enemies taking our measure – we seem less equipped to do so.

“I want you to look at this video,” Sanchez tells us in the Blagojevich segment. “He’s going for a jog . . . do you get the sense that this guy is liking the camera attention . . . treadmills are not that expensive.”