ANT KATZ

Although Clancy’s Twitter account no longer existed as of Thursday, the tweets have been preserved on a number of websites, including Twitchy and Mediaite, and by Tablet journalist Yair Rosenberg.

The brouhaha started on January 7 after Clancy posted a tweet arguing that the cartoons posted by the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which was attacked last week by Islamist gunmen who killed 12, did not mock the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Pay attenrion!

“The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet,” he wrote.

“They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word. Pay attention.”

RIGHT: Some of the e-mail thread – see more on twitter account of YAIR ROSENBERG

“Hasbarah?”

Challenged on the accuracy of the statement by Oren Kessler, a deputy director of research at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, Clancy tweeted, “Hasbara?,” a Hebrew term used to describe public relations efforts by the Israeli government.

In the ensuing debate, Clancy argued that “Pro-Israel voice https://www.sajr.co.za/images/default-source/People/single/clancy—jim.jpg” class=”sfImageWrapper”>

LEFT: Clancy as we are used to seeing him

One of those accounts, called Jews Making News, is an anti-Semitic account “Dedicated to fingering #Jewish main players & their minions in news stories.”

Clancy later told the Twitter account for Human Rights News, “You and the Hasbara team need to pick on some cripple at the edge of the herd.”

Jay Ruderman, head of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which is dedicated to advocacy and inclusion for the disabled, demanded an apology from Clancy and CNN. Ruderman said the use of the term “cripple” was insensitive.

Clancey become #2 of 8 predicted to fall

Joe Concha, writing on MEDIATE.com, says that for those out of the loop, “my 15 predictions for 2015 published at the end of December included an aggressive forecast” in terms of the number of times a cable news anchor/host/personality will write or do something on social media that reflects poorly on the news organisation he or she represents.

“The plea in my last column–which focused on an ill-advised Tweet by FBN’s Charles Payne–was to all cable news execs,” writes Concha, “Get your on-air people under control on Twitter if you want to avoid major headaches moving forward… even if that means stripping their accounts altogether.”

“And now, our second qualifier has emerged from the gate, this time over at CNN,” writes Concha. It all started after a curious tweet after the Charlie Hebdo incident: “The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet. They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word. Pay attention.”

Clancy was quickly challenged on his assertion, which mirrors the narrative of those arguing that Muslim terrorists are the extreme elements of an otherwise-peaceful Islamic religion.

So when one of Clancy’s followers submitted that Charlie Hebdo had mocked the prophet Muhammed in the minds of most Muslims, writes Joe Concha, the Emmy-winning anchor “shot back that the man challenging him — who owns a Jewish name (@OrenKessler Hasbara) — is serving as an Israeli propaganda agent (commonly known as ‘Hasbara’, which refers to PR efforts by those pro-Israel to disseminate positive information about the country).

Jim Clancy then continued to jerk the chain of Kessler. When others jumped in to ask what exactly compelled Clancy to bring Israel into the debate, he proceeded to accuse them of working for the Jewish State as well. It got to the point where one critic accused Clancy of drunk-tweeting.

Clancy’s tirade was described as “unhinged” and “extraordinarily ill-judged” for someone of his stature. Clancy himself would later say this about his weekend apparently coming early, which may explain a lot:

Find more on this at:

TWITCHY.com: “CNN ‘clown’ Jim Clancy goes on incoherent anti-Israel tirade”

MEDIATE.com: “Oof: CNN’s Jim Clancy Partially Faults Israel in Charlie Hebdo Attack”

YAIR ROSENBERG – later on Twitter: “Uh, after these incredibly biased and inappropriate tweets, I hope CNN won’t be sending this guy to cover Israel”

JTA: “CNN’s Jim Clancy resigns after controversial Israel tweets”