Rick Sanchez's Apology Puts (Temporary) End to Jon Stewart Mess

The storm in the television teapot that was the Rick Sanchez-Jon Stewart affair seems to have come to a temporary end with ex- CNN anchor Sanchez apologizing for his "inartful comments."

This came in the aftermath of Sanchez calling Stewart a "bigot" on a radio program and making anti-Semitic comments, which led to Sanchez's hasty dismissal last week.

Sanchez was entirely remorseful when he broke his silence in a statement following the brief national outcry about his comments and made clear he had apologized to Stewart personally.

"On Oct. 4, I had a very good conversation with Jon Stewart, and I had the opportunity to apologize for my inartful comments from last week," Sanchez said, according to E! news. "I sincerely extend this apology to anyone else whom I may have offended."

"Despite what my tired and mangled words may have implied, they were never intended to suggest any sort of narrow-mindedness and should never have been made," he added.

Sanchez even had good things to say about his former workplace of CNN which fired him (or decided to "part ways" with as Sanchez said artfully in his statement).

"I want to go on record to say that I have nothing but the highest regard for CNN and for my six wonderful years with them," he says. "I appreciate every opportunity that they have given me, and it has been a wonderful experience working for them. I have tremendous respect for everyone there, and I know that they feel the same about me."

"There are no hard feelingsโ€”just excitement about a new future of opportunities." (And then he naturally plugged his book.)

So that would be the end of this sad affair, right? Not so fast. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes then followed up by saying Sanchez might return to CNN.

"I think that he is a talented guy and he will have a lot of interest in different channels and, who knows, maybe some day the right place for him is at one of ours," he told Fox News (according to TVNewser) "I donโ€™t think we should do that now."

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