CNN news anchor Jim Clancy, a 34-year veteran, resigned after
becoming embroiled in an argument over the Paris terror attack on Twitter and voicing what some considered anti-Israeli and anti-disabled comments.
"The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet. They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word. Pay attention,"
Clancy wrote.
When his words were challenged by Oren Kessler of the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Clancy accused him of "hasbara," or pro-Israeli public relations, The Algemeiner reported.
"Get a grip, junior. It's my Friday night," Clancy replied. "You and the Hasbara team need to pick on some cripple on the edge of the herd."
Clancy's words were pounced on by Jay Ruderman, the head of the Ruderman Family Foundation, a disability group, who tweeted: "Cripple is derogatory term."
A few days later, Clancy tendered his resignation with a note that stated: "After nearly 34 years with Cable News Network, the time has come to say farewell!
"It has been my honor to work alongside all of you for all of these years. This is one of the greatest news organizations in the world. It has truly revolutionized information delivery while driving technological advances in how we gather the news,"
The Washington Free Beacon reported.
"Through it all, CNN has been a family to my own family. That means something. As I reflect on all of the great adventures and achievements of the past, I wish you great success in the future."
CNN confirmed Clancy's departure
to Mediaite, saying: "Jim Clancy is no longer with CNN. We thank him for more than three decades of distinguished service and wish him nothing but the best."
Clancy, who deleted his Twitter account after the incident, also had tweeted: “Pro-Israel voice try to convince us that cartoonists were really anti-Muslim,"
JTA reported.
Ruderman asked that CNN apologize for Clancy's use of the word "cripple," calling it
"appalling" and wondering how "in this day and age a senior anchor at CNN, a world leader in the media, would use a word such as 'cripple,' which is a derogatory term for people with disabilities.
"If a news anchor had hurled a racial epithet, CNN's response undoubtedly would have been swift," Ruderman said in a statement. "The disability community expects CNN to extend the same sensitivity to people with disabilities as it does to other minority communities,"
The Algemeiner reported.
Clancy has been criticized for anti-Israeli bias before over challenging questions he directed at former Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold and for speaking as a guest lecturer at the Jordan Media Institute, which came under fire for supporting Ahlam Tamimi, one of the 2001 bombers of a Sbarro restaurant in Israel, the Free Beacon reports.
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