Sunday, October 03, 2010

I believe CNN took the wrong approach with Rick Sanchez.

This has nothing to do with Eliot Spitzer's program.  I am looking forward to hearing from Eliot.  He is NECESSARY to hear from.  An American Landscape without Eliot Spitzer's point of view is grossly 'lacking.' 

That said.

Rick was very much trying to 'give voice' to those rarely 'cared about.'  Seriously.  By alienating Rick's voice there are many, if not thousands that will fall silent.  I mean that sincerely.  His approach was to 'mine the truth' and 'make it count.'  He was NOT  'seeking the truth' for his point of view which is best known as BIAS.

Contrary to Murdoch's industrial strength 'truth' which 'defines words' rather than providing their meaning in 'real lives,' Rick Sanchez was a gathering storm.  His recent book completely rejects 'conventional knowledge.'  So, for him to be on a Serius radio station where commentators like Howard Stern makes a living out of being outrageous, Rick was 'on message.'

One cannot become a lightning rod without causing controversy.  For CNN to drop the hammer on this Hispanic man without sincerely FIRST mitigating his statements and bringing to focus 'the truth' Rick was seeking is only making the 'conventional' methods of 'employee relations' permanent and not enlightened.

Recently, a female CNN journalist seeking to find the movement of the right wing young activist was victimized.  Every effort was afforded by CNN to expose her experience.  Rick Sanchez is less of a person than this journalist?  I believe their circumstances are similar in that the actions and words of both could have and probably did contribute to 'difficult managerial' positions for CNN.

If outrageous words are deeply felt by a journalist as a personal experience and conventional management discards it 'by convenience' while seeking its own integrity, then there are other forces at work and oppression is the bottom line. 

If ratings were the issue.  If appearing 'fair' by controlling words of hate and bigorty is the only purpose for the actions of management of a media network then a lot is lost.  Murdoch has made vast fortunes through allowing bigotry justify his media services.  In other words, Murdoch's biggest justification for his hideous commentators is "At least they have a voice somewhere."  Bigotry has lived within the USA since its inception.  I think the country will survive it.  Confronting it changes the face of the human experience within this democracy to the extent democracy exists void of Plutocratic Oppression.

When Mr. Sanchez stated he felt the Hispanic experience in the USA was different than that of the Jewish populous within the USA, he is correct.  Whether it is words of bigotry Mr. Sanchez is espousing is a good question, however, I refer to the history of the immigrant experience in the USA.  The most overtly classic immigration experience that incorporated people into the American Landscape was that of the Irish in Boston.  They were segregated.  They found 'democracy' and 'an electorate' a 'handy commodity' to move their populous to places of power to improve their circumstances.  That power at some level became corrupt and the suffering of the Irish in United Kingdom was backed by weapons and the like sent from somewhere in the back streets of Boston.  But, that isn't the point.  SEGREGATION is the point. 

Segregation happens in the USA because ethnicities 'at some level' give up their attempts of complete incorporation and choose to be alone in their culture preferences.  Until people of notoriety are allowed to express their personal experiences we really don't know the 'percent' oppression exists in the greater dynamic of a generous society and democracy.

If Rick Sanchez were to go his own way, the least CNN should have done was to mitigate those difficult words to come to understand why they existed in the first place, no matter how bizarre that might be.  There has been some interesting conversations among the minority members of the CNN network as of late including exploring the 'idea' of the Media Harlem/Ghetto.  I believe Mr. Sanchez from his own perspective was trying to promote that discussion.  I think we all could have survived the 'joint experience' without segregating him or his words.

CNN should not be its own Plutocratic Oppressor.