Rick Sanchez
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| Rick Sanchez | |
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| Born | July 3, 1958 |
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| Occupation | Anchor/Correspondent for CNN |
| Website Staff Biography on CNN.com |
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Rick Sanchez (born Ricardo Sánchez on July 3, 1958 in Guanabacoa, Cuba), is a hispanic-American anchor/correspondent on CNN who serves as the anchor of the weekend primetime edition of CNN Newsroom. In addition, Sanchez serves as a contributor to Anderson Cooper 360° and CNN en Español, where he frequently reports while simultaneously translating in English and Spanish. For eight months, in the interim between Paula Zahn and Campbell Brown, he anchored Out in the Open at 8 P.M. It was supposed to last one week in late July 2007, but the shows ratings success led CNN President John Klein to keep Sanchez as Host of the show until January of 2008. He has also filled in for Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi on Your Money on occasion. Based in the network's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Sanchez joined the network in September 2004.
Sanchez was involved in the network’s Peabody Award winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He anchored the network's coverage for eight hours as the levees broke in New Orleans, Louisiana, and began filing live reports from the flooding the next day.
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[edit] Early life
The son of Cuban immigrants who migrated to the United States in the 1950s from Cuba, Sanchez grew up in the city of Hialeah, Florida. He graduated from Hialeah High School in 1977 and accepted a football scholarship to Moorhead State University in Minnesota. He transferred to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on a CBS/WCCO Journalism Scholarship in 1979.
He and his wife, Suzanne (also a Miami native), have four children - three boys and a girl.
[edit] Career
Sanchez began his broadcasting career at KCMT in Alexandria, Minnesota, while still in college. He was hired at WSVN (formerly WCKT) in Miami, Florida in 1982 and became a weekend anchor shortly thereafter; at 22, he was the youngest television anchor in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale TV market at the time. He also worked briefly for KHOU in Houston, Texas in mid 1980's, before returning to an afternoon anchor position with WSVN. Sanchez was hired at MSNBC in 2001.
Sanchez has reported on major events across the United States and around the world, including on-the-scene coverage of Hurricane Andrew and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Sanchez has also reported on wars in Afghanistan and Nicaragua, the invasion of Grenada and the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier's regime in Haiti. Additionally, Sanchez has traveled to report live from Havana, Cuba, numerous times.
Sanchez was among the first journalists on the scene after the September 11 attack on New York City, filing live reports from the scene in New York as the south tower crashed to the ground.[1][2]
He is one of the nation’s first Cuban American news anchors and made broadcast history with two shows on two mediums in two languages.[3]
Sanchez is known as a tool for immersing himself into his stories. He has been submerged in water inside a car to explain how to best escape a sinking vehicle. In the aftermath of deadly prisoner excape in Atlanta, Sanchez wore a "shock belt" to explain firsthand how new technology should be used to replace revolvers when transporting prisoners. Sanchez was left atop a snow-covered mountain overnight to help explain what would be needed to survive the elements should one get stranded. His style has been parodied by Saturday Night Live (NBC) and The Daily Show (Comedy Central).[4][5]
[edit] Accident
On December 10, 1990, Sanchez struck a pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, with his car on a residential street near Dolphin Stadium after Smuzinick darted into the road.[6] Smuzinick, who was inebriated at the time of the incident, was paralyzed and eventually died from his injuries in 1995.[6][7] Sanchez, who had just left an NFL football game with his father, was not charged with causing the accident, but was charged with, and pled no contest, to DUI.[6]
[edit] Highlights
- He attended Mae M. Walters Elementary School in Hialeah, Florida.
- He attended Henry H. Filer Middle School in Hialeah, Florida.
- He worked as a delivery truck loader and as a City of Hialeah Parks and Recreation youth mentor.
- He won an Emmy Award for a series titled "Cuando salí de Cuba" (When I left Cuba), documenting his transformation from young non-English speaking Cuban immigrant to American television reporter.
