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Ah, it’s been too long since we’ve had some good ol’-fashioned Rick Sanchez-brand inanity.
On a hunch — do we know our man or what? — we checked the revision history of the Wikipedia page for Sanchez, the former WSVN-turned-CNN anchor who is currently unemployed after calling Jon Stewart a “bigot” and implying that Jews control the media.
So this past February 7, a Wikipedia user named Rsanchez1381 changed the description of Sanchez’s 1990 DUI accident, in which he struck a pedestrian outside Joe Robbie Stadium. The victim was paralyzed and died five years later. Sanchez’s BAC was .15, above the legal limit.
Rsanchez1381 changed that Sanchez “struck Jeffrey Smuzinick, a pedestrian, who had just darted out of a van” to the account that Sanchez “struck Jeffrey Smuzinick, a pedestrian, who darted out in front of Sanchez’s car,” tacitly blaming Smuznick for the accident.
Rsanchez1381 also added that Sanchez was charged only with a “misdemeanor.”
He moved the “Drunk Driving Incident” section lower in the entry. Still unsatisfied, Rsanchez1381 amplified Sanchez’s historical importance a bit by changing the following passage:
His use of social networking tools to create a citizen-driven news program was recognized by the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and has generated mostly positive feedback.
To this:
Sanchez was recognized as a pioneer in the marriage of social networking and mainstream media by creating a citizen-driven news program and was recognized by the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and by the New York Times.
The edits were quickly erased by other users for having a “conflict of interest” and being overtly from a “point of view.”
So why — beside the obvious — do we think Rsanchez1381 is actually Rick Sanchez himself? Well, Sanchez’s personal email address is Rsanchez1381@[domain].com.
We know that because we were in frequent contact with Sanchez to write a profile about his comeback. He gave us amazing Rick-isms like this one (concerning his comments about Stewart): “Some days I wake up and I just want to find the highest mountain and scream: ‘That’s not me!'”
But the whole thing fell apart when his “people” — Sanchez is now represented by Ronn Torrossian, frequent agitator for Israeli causes, which isn’t heavy-handed at all — took umbrage at our implication that Rick Sanchez himself might be the writer behind pro-comeback page Friends of Rick Sanchez.
We emailed Sanchez for a comment but have yet to hear back.
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