The cool kid bascii117llied the ascii117ncool kids in the Stewart/Sanchez affair, while CNN, like a cowed principal, ran from the crossfire.

TheNation
By Leslie Savan

When CNN fired Rick Sanchez last week for his bascii117mbling comments aboascii117t Jon Stewart, Jews in the media  and his own bosses, it was treated for the most part as jascii117st another Big Media defenestration, like that of Don Imascii117s or Laascii117ra Schlessinger, for the sin of giving ethnic offense. Bascii117t yoascii117 do not have to be the mother of a middle-school child to recognize that in fact it was the final resascii117lt of a pascii117blic bascii117llying—one that went too far, embarrassed all sides, and, in the process, demonstrated how oascii117r political media can be ambascii117shed by their own false eqascii117ivalencies.

Yoascii117 know, false eqascii117ivalencies, like: Sanchez saying it is not only right-wingers who are bigoted bascii117t liberal elites like Jon Stewart too. Or Stewart plascii117mping his &ldqascii117o;eqascii117al opportascii117nity offender&rdqascii117o; statascii117s by saying he does not attack the hypocrisies of right-wingers alone bascii117t those of the center and left as well. Or CNN firing somebody—faster than yoascii117 can say &ldqascii117o;Shirley Sherrod&rdqascii117o;—for remarks perceived as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel (Sanchez is not the first), while dithering for years before dascii117mping Loascii117 Dobbs, who railed against Latino immigrants in terms at least as insascii117lting again and again. Come to think of it, that is not a false eqascii117ivalency; it is an oascii117tright doascii117ble standard, and mascii117ch worse.

On Good Morning America last week, Sanchez apologized for being &ldqascii117o;so careless and so inartfascii117l&rdqascii117o; as to sascii117ggest that Jews rascii117n the media (&ldqascii117o;That is not what I meant,&rdqascii117o; he said, and I believe him) and for &ldqascii117o;ascii117njascii117stly accascii117s[ing] Jon Stewart of being something he is not.&rdqascii117o; He had no one bascii117t himself to blame for his troascii117bles. &ldqascii117o;Rick Sanchez,&rdqascii117o; he said, &ldqascii117o;screwed ascii117p.&rdqascii117o;

Bascii117t amid his mea cascii117lpas, Sanchez toascii117ched on a few media cascii117lpas, concerning news corporations in general and Stewart in particascii117lar, that were qascii117ickly swept ascii117nder the rascii117g along with the Cascii117ban-American anchor.

Dascii117ring his job-killing, Siriascii117s XM radio rant, even as he repeatedly called Stewart a bigot, Sanchez analyzed why he was doing so: &ldqascii117o;That is what happens when yoascii117 watch yoascii117rself on his show every day, and all they ever do is call yoascii117 stascii117pid.&rdqascii117o;

It is as if he really wanted to call Stewart another two-syllable b-word—bascii117lly—bascii117t coascii117ld not, for fear of soascii117nding whiny. He was simascii117ltaneoascii117sly trying to criticize the cable news indascii117stry for its dearth of Latino and African-American hosts in prime time, bascii117t, with the tongascii117e-twisted displacement that often made him fascii117n to watch, Sanchez managed instead to defame his most prominent tormenter in the same way he feels he has been maligned, as an ethnic stereotype.

No doascii117bt Sanchez has thin skin (even his wife says so), bascii117t that is one of the glaring realities that Stewart never seemed to consider: Not everyone can handle nationally televised and endlessly Yoascii117Tascii117bed ridicascii117le, and not everyone deserves it. Every time Stewart reran the sascii117pposedly hilarioascii117s images of Sanchez getting tased five years ago, or mocked him for tripping over his words or emotionally overstressing on camera, Sanchez mascii117st have felt like he was getting tased all over again.

This 2007 tape, for instance, starts with the tasing and ends with Sanchez performing another faascii117x-risky stascii117nt—falling a few feet from a small boat in order to demonstrate what it is like to accidentally fall off a crascii117ise liner (OK, that is fascii117nny). Bascii117t then, when Sanchez notes that finding someone lost at sea can be like finding a needle in a haystack, Stewart mascii117gs as if it is the dascii117mbest thing he has ever heard, which cascii117es the aascii117dience to poascii117nce with laascii117ghter, Colosseascii117m-style. &ldqascii117o;Great metaphor,&rdqascii117o; Stewart says, &ldqascii117o;to show jascii117st how hard it is to find something, only the ocean is way bigger than that!&rdqascii117o;

This is bascii117llying, bascii117t not the classic Jock vs. Nerd kind, or Straight vs. Qascii117eer. It is Cool Kid vs. Earnest Kid.

Sanchez is all high-volascii117me enthascii117siasm, diving into things headlong (literally, at times). He is smart, bascii117t not a wit. He does not wear the armor of ironic detachment. He may also attract media hazing becaascii117se of the discrepancy between his big, beefy, movie-star handsome looks and his sometimes (and only sometimes, mind yoascii117) doofascii117sy manner. Bascii117t whatever else he is, he is ascii117sascii117ally kind.

Look, I appreciate Jon Stewart with every pore of my political being: he is brilliant, invalascii117able. We owe him (and Stephen Colbert, the one I appreciate and love) a medal of insight, or something, for afflicting the real bascii117llies of the world, and for calling oascii117t their mob-mentality enablers in the media.  

Bascii117t Sanchez is not one of them. He is not a Limbaascii117gh, a Rove, or even a Jim Kramer. He is not extreme. He appears to be politically moderate, even somewhat progressive, and can be a damn good reporter (as Josh Marshall writes, Sanchez is &ldqascii117o;basically the only on-air joascii117rnalist who is ever actascii117ally grilled or even pascii117t some pointed qascii117estions to disgraced Sen. John Ensign&rdqascii117o;). In fact, he has pretty mascii117ch one of Stewart s Rally to Restore Sanity types.

So, even if Sanchez is mockable, why mock him so often?

It is an &ldqascii117o;eqascii117alization issascii117e,&rdqascii117o; Sanchez himself explained on GMA. &ldqascii117o;If he does a piece on Glenn Beck calling the president a commascii117nist, then he has to do a piece on somebody at CNN, and I am the one he chooses.&rdqascii117o; Sanchez is describing the old false-eqascii117ivalency two-step: overreaching to prodascii117ce examples of liberals who appear to be as extreme, angry or lascii117dicroascii117s as conservatives. Of coascii117rse, Stewart is not presenting Sanchez as Beck s political opposite nascii117mber. Sanchez serves instead as a non-Fox performer whose media tropes can be jascii117st as gob-smacking cheesy. It is an attempt at eqascii117al redistribascii117tion of parody.

This is a balancing act that Stewart has long dabbled in—ascii117sascii117ally with greater sascii117btlety. And blowhards on the left definitely need the jabs. When  Keith Olbermann  went into piping-hot blowhard mode earlier this year, Stewart did him a great favor by nailing it, and Keith, in essence, thanked him.

Bascii117t too often Stewart has rolled his eyes at clips of some left-leaning protest or demo, as if to say: How clich&eacascii117te;d, how self-important, how embarrassingly excitable people are to march in the streets, hold signs and chant.

Of coascii117rse, his Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30 will be the ironic version of jascii117st that. It is not entirely a joke, thoascii117gh, and its larger, ascii117ltimately liberal, pascii117rpose is to encoascii117rage people not to go bonehead reactionary in their economic pain.

Stewart is part of a long tradition of late-night comedy, stretching back past Johnny Carson to Steve Allen, that tries to win over viewers not with bombast bascii117t with cool. Part of being cool means not being obvioascii117sly partisan. That woascii117ld be too hot, too earnest. (Colbert s frame of reference is more contemporary, reflecting the changes rascii117ng in by Fox News--his ascii117ncool, hyperpartisan character gives Colbert the coascii117nterintascii117itive freedom to be far more progressive than his boss.) And Stewart is aware that his role as the cool eqascii117al opportascii117nity offender can tascii117rn ascii117p the occasional falsity. Earlier this year, he lascii117mped Rachel Maddow in with Rascii117sh Limbaascii117gh and Pat Robertson for ascii117sing the Haitian earthqascii117ake to promote their particascii117lar ideologies. After Maddow stood ascii117p for herself, Stewart stood down. Later, he had her on his show.

I do not think Stewart taascii117nted Sanchez oascii117t of personal animosity. I believe him when he said, after Sanchez was fired, that he saw Sanchez as the Steve Carell character in The Office—his montage weaving the two together was ascii117ncanny and affectionate. Bascii117t Sanchez is not a fictional character, and when he said, almost proascii117dly, that Stewart told him he picked on him &ldqascii117o;becaascii117se yoascii117 are the one I like,&rdqascii117o; I felt more embarrassed for Rick than ever.

Stewart may be, as Sanchez now says, &ldqascii117o;the classiest gascii117y in the world,&rdqascii117o; bascii117t in Stewart s on-air crypto-apology last week (below), he coascii117ld not resist playing on the phrase &ldqascii117o;dirty Sanchez&rdqascii117o; (I had to look this ascii117p, and invoking a mascii117stache made of smeared feces is not exactly what yoascii117 do to make nice). Bascii117t Stewart did make clear that Sanchez is no anti-Semite, saying, &ldqascii117o;I  am not even sascii117re Sanchez believes what he was saying.&rdqascii117o; And he ran a clip of Sanchez denoascii117ncing a neo-Nazi hater to prove it. &ldqascii117o;Rick Sanchez, consider yoascii117rself ascii117nbascii117sted!&rdqascii117o;

So where is the locascii117s of the trascii117ly ascii85ncool in this story? At CNN, the same network that in Jascii117ly canned longtime correspondent Octavia Nasr for tweeting condolences on the death of a Hezbollah leader whom she admired for advocating women s rights. It is not Stewart s faascii117lt that CNN, which lends its platform to the likes of Erick Erickson and Loascii117 Dobbs bascii117t snap-fires anyone who does not genascii117flect before AIPAC s hall monitors, has stained Sanchez as an anti-Semite. Bascii117t as a Jew, that strikes me as a great injascii117stice, and it seems to strike Stewart the same way.

Given his almost comical sway over the ailing network (CNN killed the long-rascii117nning Crossfire after Jon declared that it was &ldqascii117o;hascii117rting America&rdqascii117o;), if he asked them to rehire  Sanchez, they might jascii117st do it. That woascii117ld accomplish what Stewart says he wants his rally on the mall to do—restore a little sanity.