On yesterday's CNN Newsroom, anchor Susan Roesgen reported on cities ranked by Twitter usage. Speaking with co-anchor T.J. Holmes, Roesgen introduced colleague Rick Sanchez's name toward the end of the item:
ROESGEN: Yes, Chicago's number three. You know why? Because in this new result, it says that the guy in Chicago who twitters the most, like 12,000 people...
HOLMES: Oh, yes.
ROESGEN: ... he writes about things like what the back of the cab smelled like when he took -- this is why it's insane.
HOLMES: Those are little things.
ROESGEN: OK.
HOLMES: But you're just getting tidbits of information, you're giving people updates about you.
ROESGEN: Yes, well -- OK, Rick Sanchez.
HOLMES: Hey, Rick has a heck of a following with that twittering. Don't insult his viewers.
ROESGEN: Oh, OK. I'm not. Hey, no. I'm just -- anyway.
HOLMES: All right. But San Francisco, it's up in the top five as well. Seattle, Toronto, Atlanta, where we are, and Boston and Austin, Texas, round out the top 10.
ROESGEN: Yes.
HOLMES: We are going to get you on the Twitter thing, Susan...
ROESGEN: We'll see. We'll see.
Now CNN Newsroom anchor Rick Sanchez has an ego that's almost as big as Barack Obama's ears. He's particularly proud of integrating social media such as Twitter and Facebook on his program. His CNN blog features entries modestly claiming "Who’s the TWITTER KING? C’mon…you have to ask?" and "But we know who started it (using social media) all, right?"
NewsBuster Ken Shepherd took note last month when CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen told Sanchez: "you're CNN's chief twit." Sanchez thanked her for "the compliment" and then said, "Good Lord."
When Sanchez heard Roesgen's reference to him, he began tweeting about it:
The first tweet: "wow, susan just dissed my using twitter on cnn. im calling in to get on the air. can't believe she still doesn't get it."
His second tweet: "roesgen she said to tj, kiddingly,still that "twitter is people talking about what the back of cabs smell like" what? i called in,but...."
Then finally: "no rick on phoner live... they don't want to play! oh well, i tried"
If Sanchez had been watching his network earlier, he'd have heard Susan Roesgen on CNN Saturday Morning News describe Twitter usage as "Dim, dim, dumb!" and tell co-anchor Holmes she had two "kind of dimwitted Twitter questions" about his interview with Charles Barkley. And Sanchez should have known that Roesgen wasn't "kiddingly" talking about tweets concerning the smell of the back of cabs. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on that last Thursday.
Rick must have been profoundly disappointed that he couldn't do a "phoner live" and present his case. Perhaps it will give him a small taste of what it's like for conservatives whose views have been edited by the mainstream media for so very long.
****That puckish Rick Sanchez tweeted this a couple of hours after my NewsBusters item was posted:
must read: http://tinyurl.com/cg3fdf, mike who i like says: conservatives haven't gotten their views accross because of media... what? what? what? where's he been last 8 years, cuba? i wrote that susan was kidding, i meant it.i wanted to have a fun, smart convo with her as a colleague. he really spun it. still like mike
No, Rick, I haven't been in Cuba. I've been watching you and others in the mainstream media consistently demonstrate bias against conservatives, as documented on a daily basis at NewsBusters and other discerning outlets that supply a little much-needed balance.
And I still like you, too. Thanks for joining the fray.
