Conventional Idiocy: Why the New America Is Sick of Old Politics »

Rick Sanchez anchors Rick's List each weekday and is the former anchor for the 3-4 p.m. CNN Newsroom. He also serves as a contributor for CNN en Espanol. His professional honors include an Emmy(r) Award and an American Medical Association "Distinguished Journalist Award".

CNN anchor and TV news social media pioneer Rick Sanchez cuts through the bull to fearlessly share what Americans are really thinking.

It's time for the conventional idiots to wake up- because Americans have had enough. People in social networks are smashing the walls of partisan politics and traditional journalism-and things will never be the same. This is the new America-and Rick Sanchez is plugged in to the national conversation.

As the first national news anchor to combine traditional network news with the power of social-networking tools like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook, CNN's Rick Sanchez doesn't just talk to Americans-he hears directly from them, unfiltered, every day. As Rick says, "It wasn't me talking. It was we talking."

Viewers tweet at Rick daily, so he knows they are sick of "conventional idiocy" like death panels, birthers, and blind partisanship. Luckily, Rick Sanchez is listening, and he's here to provide the takeaway.

Publishers Weekly

The host of CNN's "Rick's List" goes Greatest Hits with his first book, including favorite take-downs, confrontations, stories, tweets, and even viewer emails (read on-air, poor grammar and all). Thus, Sanchez isn't interested in exploring deeper questions about the relationship between the news and its viewers, preferring to fill the space with self-aggrandizing anecdotes. While he deserves to be commended for a confrontational interview style and stubborn search for the truth, anecdotes about how "CNN world headquarters was on their feet" applauding him "on the day he took on the entire FOX News Network" are either hard to believe or just meretricious. Sanchez frequently pats himself on the back when noting interviews that "went viral" to be "discussed on the blogs for days" without delving into any potential results of his reporting. Interspersed is Sanchez's own origin story, and tales of his upbringing and hard-working, immigrant parents are touching. Readers who are sick of FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, the birthers, and others who in Sanchez's view constitute this idiocy may be able to ignore the swagger and enjoy the story.
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Introduction: You Say "They Don't Get Us!" 1

You're Sick of...

1 Blind Partisanship 37

2 Money in Politics 71

3 The Media Shouting Machine 101

4 Mainstream Milquetoasts 121

5 Wall Street's Greed 143

6 Wars 171

7 Religion Used as a Bludgeon 191

8 Anti-Immigration Hysteria 223

Acknowledgments 259