(INN) CNN's veteran news anchor and international correspondent Jim Clancy has provoked controversy after a series of bizarre anti-Israel tweets following Wednesday's deadly terrorist attack in Paris.
Journalists throughout the world and from across the political spectrum reacted with horror at the slaughter of 12 people at Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices yesterday. The satirical magazine was targeted by Muslim extremists wielding Kalashnikov rifles, after years of threats and previous attacks by Islamists over several cartoons it published which mocked Islam and Muslim leaders - in addition to countless others mocking other religious and secular figures.
Clancy, however, took exception to the claim that the magazine was attacked for insulting Islam, claiming instead that "The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet. They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word."
A debatable position perhaps, given that some of its cartoons do indeed appear to directly mock Mohammed - and the fact that any representation of him whatsoever, in any context, is deemed "offensive" under Islamic law.
And indeed, several of his followers did in fact debate that point - but were then attacked as being pro-Israel, despite not having brought Israel up at all.
Various other responses were similarly aggressively rebuffed as "Hasbara"; Clancy's trigger-happy usage of the term even led him to similarly tweet that a virulently anti-Semitic neo-Nazi account was involved with "PR for Israel".
Several of his followers reacted with shock at his response, with some calling into question his objectivity as a journalist who frequently reports from the Middle East.
@clancycnn @OrenKessler Wait - what has Israel got to do with any of this?
— Ike Aramba (@shmarxism) January 7, 2015
Er, no, @clancycnn. It's called an ad hominem attack. Extraordinarily ill-judged, uncalled 4 + outrageous 4 man in ur position @OrenKessler
— Davis Lewin (@davislewin) January 7, 2015
@verofoss @clancycnn @OrenKessler Very fact that he uses "hasbara" as an accusation is significant in a journalist covering Int'l affairs.
— Spinoza's rose (@ContentiousNote) January 8, 2015
@clancycnn Umm. The guy corrects you about cartoons & u respond by saying he's a Jewish troll? Are u high? WTF is wrong w/u? @OrenKessler
— Kristine ❀♡❀♡ (@KristineAz) January 8, 2015
Following a hail of criticism, the CNN correspondent remained unrepentant though:
@HumanRights2K Get a grip, junior. It's my Friday night. You and the Hasbara team need to pick on some cripple on the edge of the herd.
— Jim Clancy (@clancycnn) January 8, 2015
@HumanRights2K Thanks for the glimpse into your dreams. Everyone who stands for Human Rights is anti-Semitic. Great moniker, that.
— Jim Clancy (@clancycnn) January 8, 2015
The Hasbara (Israeli explaining the inconsistencies of Human Rights) team has declared victory over @ClancyCNN - next up, #ICC
— Jim Clancy (@clancycnn) January 8, 2015
Subsequent to those posts, the CNN man subsequently retweeted of a quote by radical leftist Noam Chomsky which read: "Radical Islamic fundamentalists have been Washington’s most valued allies in the Middle East for 75 years."
French authorities meanwhile are still searching for the two shooters in the Paris attack, after the man believed to have acted as their getaway driver - 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad - handed himself in voluntarily after being publicly named as a suspect.
The remaining suspects, brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both in their 30s, are still at large.
