At WHCA Dinner Obama Ridicules CNN’s Sanchez for Gaffe First Publicized by NewsBusters

At the White House Correspondents Association dinner Saturday night, President Barack Obama mocked CNN’s Rick Sanchez for saying Iceland is “too cold” for a volcano, a remark launched into the blogosphere by NewsBusters (April 15 NB post with video) and which prompted Sanchez, who insisted he was joking, to put NB post author Matthew Balan at the “very top” of his “List U Don't Want 2 Be On.” (April 19 NB post with video)

Obama’s joke centered on his bad opening day “first pitch” at the Washington Nationals game. He displayed how FNC described his pitch, “President Panders to Far Left of Batters Box,” and MSNBC’s on-screen graphic under Keith Olbermann: “President Pitches No-Hitter.” The President then played the real video from CNN of Sanchez, and then, generating laughter from the DC audience, quipped: “I guess that’s why they’re the most-trusted name in news.”

On the April 15 edition of his Rick’s Picks program, Sanchez said: “When you think of a volcano, you think of Hawaii and long words like that. You don't think of Iceland. You think it's too cold to have a volcano there.”

Apparently, not even President Obama bought Sanchez’s claim he was joking.

(Video is from MSNBC’s live coverage. CNN also carried Obama’s remarks, but in a production decision which minimized embarrassment for Sanchez, CNN’s camera stayed on Obama and so didn’t show the fake FNC and MSNBC graphics, nor the Sanchez video re-play.)