The Dog Ate Rick Sanchez’s Homework

It has been well over a month since Rick Sanchez was fired from CNN. He was fired on a Monday. He sent out a public “apology,” if you would call it that, on Wednesday. After a barrage of attacks on different news outlets he appeared on Good Morning America the same week, to publicly apologize again. Either he didn’t prep himself well for the interview or his publicist is brand new to the job.

Instead of coming out and succinctly saying he was sorry for the comment he made, he first laid the blame on his 14-hour work days, being spread too thin between three different jobs and (our personal favorite excuse) in a rush to get to his daughter’s softball game.

Ok I understand…we all have hectic lives and it’s hard to balance achieving your goals in your career and balancing family life. Everyone in the developed world could identify with that struggle. Appearing on cable news and bringing that excuse to the table, instead of taking the blame and apologizing, is very similar to “the dog ate my homework” excuse. Then following up that “apology” with several plugs of your newly released book and rambling about your tough childhood don’t do you any justice either. If anything, this apology alienates you from your audience even more.

What made this eight-minute apology even better was that he contradicted his work by citing an interview he had with Ed Koch about Israel saying, “I was asking the questions a reporter should ask, not that those questions reflect what I believe.” He then goes on to describe what lead him to say what he did about Jon Stewart (after the work and family excuse) and stated, “What I was feeling got in the way of what I said.” Now, I’m not reporter but I do know that in general a reporter is not supposed to let his or her personal beliefs get in the way of an interview they are conducting or giving. That actually, can be said for any profession.

Since the debacle in early October Sanchez has done a good job of staying out of the public eye. Recently he started tweeting again, his first tweet being a notice that his account, created by CNN, was no longer affiliated. Since then his tweets have focused on family and recreational activities, going to sporting events and long drives in the country.

Looks like Sanchez finally got the memo, instead of letting loose more half-baked apologies he is laying low. If you’re not going to come out and take full responsibility for your actions the best action one can take is to get out of the public eye for awhile.