Sanchez on CNN, Stewart Remarks: 'I Screwed Up'

(Oct. 8) -- Former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez said his comments about Jon Stewart were "wrong" and "offensive," and apologized for remarks many said were anti-Semitic.

"I screwed up," Sanchez told ABC's "Good Morning America" in his first televised interview since he was fired last week during the fallout from his comments. "I said some things I shouldn't have said. And they were wrong. And not only were they wrong, they were offensive."

On live radio last week, Sanchez, who grew up in Cuba, called Stewart a "bigot" and went on to question whether the Comedy Central star's Jewish heritage qualified him as a minority.

"Very powerless people," Sanchez said sarcastically last week. "He's such a minority, I mean, you know. ... Please, what, are you kidding? I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they -- the people in this country who are Jewish -- are an oppressed minority? Yeah."

The day after the rant, CNN fired Sanchez, an anchor whose colorful reporting -- being Tasered on his cable news show for a story, for example -- had repeatedly been the target of Stewart's comedic jabs.

This morning, the former anchor took aim at the lack of racial diversity among prime-time cable news anchors and said he went into the interview last week with a chip on his shoulder.

"I went in there with a chip on my shoulder, I was a little bit angry. And look, I will be honest with you, and I hope you don't mind my saying this, but I'm just going to go ahead and say it: If you look at the landscape right now in our media, in prime time, there's not a single Hispanic, there's not a single African-American," he said. "And I was looking at the landscape, and I was looking and I was seeing that. And I externalized the problem and put it on Jon Stewart's shoulders, and I was wrong to do that."

Sanchez also noted that he had personally apologized to Stewart, whom he today called "the classiest guy in the world." Sanchez didn't say what he planned to do next, but told ABC he held no ill will toward his old network.

"CNN is a wonderful, wonderful organization that treated me well and took care of my family, and I owe them loyalty because they've been good to me," he said. "CNN didn't screw up, Rick Sanchez screwed up."