CNN's Sanchez Likens Arpaio to Bull Connor

Newsbusters ^ | October 20, 2009 | Mike Bates

[La Lydia]

On his segment of today's CNN Newsroom, anchor Rick Sanchez went for the hat trick, likening Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to the infamous Theophilus “Bull” Connor, Birmingham, Alabama’s late segregationist police commissioner who ruthlessly used police attack dogs and fire hoses to thwart 1963 civil rights demonstrators, no fewer than three times.

Sanchez prefaced his interview with the Arizona sheriff: Well, perhaps not since Bull Connor whose aggressive police tactics against blacks in the South sparked civil rights legislation in 1964 has our country seen a showdown like the one going on right now between Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio and Washington, as in the feds.

You heard it here on Friday, right? Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant secretary came on the air and told me that while they do want local sheriffs around the country to help with immigration issues and immigration arrests, he specifically said they don't want Sheriff Joe Arpaio's help.

And during his interview: SANCHEZ: Like Bull Connor in 1960s, you're going to sit there and tell the feds, you don't care what they say, you're going to do it your way and you're going to do it when you want to do it?

ARPAIO: No, they don't tell me how to do my job enforcing state laws. I worked 25 years as a top Justice Department drug enforcement official. I think I know the federal law and how to operate under the federal blanket. So...

SANCHEZ: All right. Well, for the record, they're saying you don't and they're saying you're violating it.

ARPAIO: Then come on after me, if he thinks I'm violating any of the federal laws....

The truth is Joe Arpaio has little in common with Bull Connor. Connor was an ardent, life-long Democrat who served as Alabama's Democratic National Committeeman. Arpaio is a Republican. Connor viciously attacked citizens exercising their Constitutional rights. Arpaio arrests criminals.

Sanchez isn't the first to liken Arpaio to Connor. ACORN chief executive officer Bertha Lewis has characterized Arpaio as "the 21st century's answer to Bull Connor."...

The Communist Workers World last month gleefully reported "Racist Sheriff Arpaio greeted by angry, militant protest." ...

Sanchez's comparing Sheriff Joe to Bull Connor isn't original. The only difference is he has a daily show on CNN. ACORN, Sharpton, and Workers World can only aspire to such exposure.

[La Lydia]

This makes me furious. First, it is an insult to black people who were 1) here legally and 2) exercising their Constitutional rights, by comparing them with illegal non-citizens breaking the law. This is an ill-disguised attempt to change the narrative from the Rule of Law and law enforcement, which Sheriff Joe is upholding, to a supposedly "racial" attack on Hispanics. There is a reason that justice is depicted as blind: no one is above the law. One of the most important reasons our country has been successful, and that people want to come here, is that our society is based on the Rule of Law, which prevailed in the case of Bull Connor. But what Rick Sanchez and the rest are advocating is a setting aside of the Rule of Law for a particular group of people.

[P-Marlowe]

Rick Sanchez personally killed more people than Charles Manson.

[GeronL]

That’s Rick “Hit & Run” Sanchez

[VeniVidiVici]

Hopefully Arpaio will get upset at being referred to as Democrat Bull Conner.

[Lawgvr1955]

My first response to Sanchez would have been, “Rick, there are lots of differences, first of all, Sheriff Joe isn’t a Democrat”. That should have sent him off for a drink.

[jospehm20]

Now that you mention it, I remember him.

[RexBeach]

OK then, Rick. You remind me of Howdy Doody.

[uptoolate]

Rick Sanchez personally killed more people than Charles Manson.

That statement should be in Wikipedia, don't ya think?

[TexasFreeper2009]

I am sure he would arrest anyone crossing the border illegally, regardless of race.

You show me some footage of him letting illegal Arabs crossing the border go, or illegal Asians and we'll talk again.

[Isara]

That’s Rick “Hit & Run” Sanchez

And he did another "Hit & Run" reporting.

[marstegreg]

Right......We all know what a credible journalist Sanchez is!

[La Lydia]

I object to allowing a light weight Rick Sanchez to define the situation.

[Republic of Texas]

I guess that would make Gov. Napolitano George Wallace.

[maggief]

Sanchez is like Ted Kennedy.

[IMissPresidentReagan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Sanchez

From the wikipedia entry: Rick Sanchez (born Ricardo Sánchez on July 3, 1958 in Guanabacoa, Cuba), is the first national news anchor credited with combining traditional network news with social media using MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. Sanchez hosts the 3 p.m. (Eastern Time) weekday edition of CNN Newsroom. In addition, Sanchez co-hosts a daily segment on CNN Español and has served as a contributor to Anderson Cooper 360° and CNN International, where he frequently reports while simultaneously translating in English and Spanish. For eight months, in the interim between Paula Zahn and Campbell Brown, he anchored Out in the Open at 8 p.m. Also, and more importantly, Rick Sanchez has personally killed more people than Charlie Manson, thus earning him the nickname Rick "Hit and Run" Sanchez. The show was to last one week in late July 2007, but the show's ratings success led CNN President John Klein to keep Sanchez as host of the show until January 2008. He has also filled in for Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi on Your Money on occasion. Based in the network's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Sanchez joined the network in September 2004 and now blogs at cnn.com/ricksanchez.

[DManA]

CNN is so sensitive. They always assign a Hispanic to cover the illegal story and a black to cover any civil rights story, a woman to cover woman’s issue, and a white guy to report the weather.

[squarebarb]

Did you really put that in his Wiki page?

[whitedog57]

Rick Sanchez, like Obama, is a sissy.

Sissy boy, sissy boy, sissy boy!!!!

[IMissPresidentReagan]

It really was on his wiki page. Screen grab:

[bcsco]

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