Open Mouth, Insert Foot?
NewsBusters’ Matthew Balan writes about Rick Sanchez apparently putting his foot in it…
CNN’s Rick Sanchez quickly apologized on his Rick’s List program on Monday after inadvertently labeling Barack Obama the “cotton-picking president of the United States.” Sanchez used the racially-tinged term in response to the President recently addressing the significant percentage of American population who believe he is Muslim or was born outside the U.S.
The anchor raised President Obama’s recent comment about his birth certificate with correspondent Jessica Yellin 21 minutes into the 3 pm Eastern hour. Yellin explained that “this is the first time he’s talked about it since the polls showing how many Americans believe him to be Muslim came out” and that “you get the sense that he’s been sort of through this. He wants to set the record straight, but he really does seem to accept that he’s not going to convince everyone, and he’s not going to spend a lot of time and energy on something that’s not going to change.”
Sanchez replied to Yellin full of frustration: “I’m just sitting here just shaking my head. He is the cotton-picking president of the United States!”
August 30, 2010 at 5:13 pm
That was an innocent mistake. I’m no Sanchez fan, but when you’re on the air three hours a day, you’re bound to run into trouble. Or plow right into it, as is the case with Sanchez.
August 30, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Oh please. I’ve used that phrase a million times, and it never once occurred to me what its origins are. When did Newsbusters suddenly start embracing PC?
August 30, 2010 at 5:25 pm
‘Cotton-picking’ is what happens when you have an impulse to say a bad word, catch yourself, and reach into a 50-year-wayback-machine for a replacement. Overcompensating perhaps; nothing more.
August 30, 2010 at 5:44 pm
As I’ve argued many times on various blogs, American English is not an homogeneous language and phrases that might offend in one region won’t in others. For this one, some in Mississippi or Louisiana might take offence while most in the Upper Midwest or parts of New England wouldn’t think anything of it. I usually hear this spoken by women over 60, both blacks and whites.
“Poor thing” is another phrase that can indicate either compassion or disdain depending upon region and vocal inflection.
August 30, 2010 at 6:25 pm
I agree with the above posters. This is stupid. I hate the pc thing no matter who does it. The only thing worse than political correctness is apologizing for it. If I have to endure another faux “racism” cry, I’m gonna lose my cotton-pickin’ mind.
August 30, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Yes what “hit an run”Sanchez said is no big deal…..however if Beck,Hannity or O’Reilly said it they would be pounce on by MSNBC and others big time.
August 30, 2010 at 6:29 pm
And if you don’t agree with us, you’re a racist homophobe who likes Rick’s List.
August 30, 2010 at 6:30 pm
And if you don’t agree with us, you’re a racist h0m0ph0be who likes Rick’s List
August 30, 2010 at 7:06 pm
joeremi, so YOU’RE the one who supplies Gutfeld with his Greg-alogue endings!
August 30, 2010 at 7:44 pm
^ A apologize for nothing.
August 30, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Now we know who to blame.
August 30, 2010 at 7:56 pm
^ Go away, you miserable jerk.
August 30, 2010 at 7:56 pm
OOOPS. Wrong jerk.
August 30, 2010 at 7:57 pm
HA!
August 30, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Off topic but…I would just like to point out my amazing ability to see into the future. Yesterday I predicted that Mathews would continue to play the race card (today) and that Olby would call in sick from the bathtub. Yeah, I know that’s fairly easy to predict but I’m gonna pat myself on the back anyway. BTW, according to Olby, that crowd you saw on Saturday was only 87K people. Anyhoo, that’s his story and he’s sticking to it…rather definitively on the tweeter thingy.
August 30, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Never trust an adult that tweets.
August 30, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Apparently this blog takes offence at the word “h0m0geneous”.
August 30, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Guess there aren’t too many ‘geneous’es around here.
August 31, 2010 at 12:47 am
I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason, to Greg Gutfeld. Anyway, he introduced each guest, plus Andy Levy and Bill, as being “predominately white”.
August 31, 2010 at 12:56 am
Hi Missy, welcome to the All Nighter’s Club.
August 31, 2010 at 4:15 am
I saw that, too, missy. Very funny. I liked the way Greg said no one describes the audiences for Bon Jovi concerts as “predominately white.” But for any conservative hosting a rally or having a concert, their audiences are always described by the color of their skin.
I watched some of MJ this morning. Is Joe drunk? Seriously….is he drunk? He laughs at nothing. At least he was only six minutes late today.
August 31, 2010 at 4:31 am
[…] Another milestone for CNN’s Mental Giant of the airwaves, Rick Sanchez. Sanchez later apologized for his remark. More on the incident: Open Mouth, Insert Foot? […]
August 31, 2010 at 7:08 am
Innocent mistake. We should raise the bar, not lower it, for situations like this. I would hope we would not take a Fox host to task for a slip of the tongue, I will certainly extend the same latitude to Sanchez.