Former MSNBC and CNN anchor Rick Sanchez made news last week when he criticized CNN’s coverage of the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. While we were chatting with the Cuban-American journalist regarding his Katrina comments, the topic of Jorge Ramos and Donald Trump publicly feuding over immigration came up.
“I love Jorge, he’s a good friend. He’s a great journalist and he’s obviously very affected by what he’s seeing from Donald Trump, as we all are,” said Sanchez, who is a contributor to FoxNewsLatino.com and host of an afternoon talk radio show in Miami. “I am a journalist, but I’m also a Latino and it infuriates me.”
While Sanchez sympathizes with Ramos, he doesn’t necessarily agree with the Univision and Fusion anchor’s approach. Sanchez called Ramos’ action at a recent Trump press conference a “woe is me” strategy.
“Sure, in the Hispanic community people will say ‘oh yes I feel your pain, you feel my pain – that’s great.’ But the audience we need to reach here when we’re talking about Donald Trump is the general market audience. They’re not interested in having us cry on their shoulder. Unfortunately the tact that my friend Jorge took was just that,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez offered advice for Ramos or other journalists that want to approach Trump about the topic of immigration.
“What you need to do, as a journalist, and this is what’s lacking sorely in cable news, is have a fact-based discussion about the thing that Trump is saying,” Sanchez said before firing off numerous stats that support Ramos’ claims.
“Everybody wants a more secure border. I want a more secure border. Hispanics wants a more secure border. But you can achieve that without having to insult an entire community,” Sanchez said. “That said, my criticism of Jorge Ramos is that he didn’t have a fact-based discussion or attempt to have a fact-based discussion. Nor has he recently, in his coverage of Donald Trump, done that. And I think that’s a mistake.”
Sanchez wouldn’t have chosen a news conference to approach Trump, saying “you can never out-bully a bully when he’s in his own backyard. It was not a good venue for that.”
Sanchez bemoans the under-representation of Latinos on cable news: “I wish there were people in the media like me. I wish there was somebody still at CNN, if not me, then somebody like me. I wish there was somebody like me on MSNBC. I wish there was somebody like me on any of the networks,” said Sanchez.
Born in Cuba and raised in the suburbs of Miami, Sanchez doesn’t care for the term “anchor baby” but feels the tone determines when it’s appropriate.
“I think it’s terribly offensive. I understand its part of the political nomenclature and I think there is a difference between the way Bush used it and the way Trump used it. I think Jeb fell into the trap of having to use it to become part of the conversation about it. I think Trump used it as a way of sticking a needle in the back of Hispanics.”