CNN finally gets around to firing Rick Santorum – The A.V. Club

Wouldn’t you know it: CNN has once again been let down by its efforts to find a conservative commentator who will tout anti-science, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage rhetoric on its airwaves—in the interest of good, objective journalism—but who won’t also say things so racist that they’re then forced to fire them. This is per Huffington Post, which reports that the cable news network has finally parted ways with former senator and presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, after the “senior political correspondent” came under fire for comments about Indigenous peoples that he made at an event in April, asserting that European colonists in the Americas “birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here,” and that, “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

Santorum attempted to do some damage control for these blatantly untrue comments (which ignore the fact that any “lack” of Indigenous culture in the makeup of the United States’ melting pot probably stems from the wide-scale murders, relocations, betrayals, and racism) on an appearance on Chris Cuomo’s show, but his cries of “The context!” didn’t appear to impress either Indigenous watchers, or the bookers for CNN’s various commentary shows. The network has been the target of ire from groups like the National Congress Of American Indians in recent weeks, with NCAI president Fawn Sharp declaring that, “Televising someone with his views on Native American genocide is fundamentally no different than putting an outright Nazi on television to justify the Holocaust. Any mainstream media organization should fire him or face a boycott from more than 500 tribal nations and our allies from across the country and worldwide.”

CNN confirmed this week that it’s parted ways with Santorum, who will have to content himself with being wrong about most things in private, rather than on the public stage.