A Jewish advocacy group’s leader is calling on CNN International anchor Jim Clancy to apologize for using the word “cripple” in a derogatory way.
“If a news anchor had hurled a racial epithet, CNN’s response undoubtedly would have been swift,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. “The disability community expects CNN to extend the same sensitivity to people with disabilities as it does to other minority communities.”
The Ruderman Family Foundation is a nonprofit that works toward “the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout the Jewish community,” according to the group’s website.
The matter started last week when Clancy tweeted about the deadly terrorist attack by radical Islamists on a magazine in Paris, known for publishing satirical cartoons sometimes offensive to Muslims.
“The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet [Muhammed],” Clancy tweeted at the time. “They mocked how the COWARDS [who] tried to distort his word. Pay attention.”
Some of Clancy’s followers challenged his point, which suggested that the terrorists were motivated not by Islam (which teaches followers not to mock its prophet) but by something else.
Clancy responded to several of the replies he received, but eventually tweeted this at one person: “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.”
Hasbara is a reference to the Israeli government’s public relations effort to spread positive information about Israel.
As of press time, Clancy’s tweets, including the “cripple” comment, have not been deleted.
The incident recalled the 1983 resignation of Secretary of the Interior James Watt for using the same word in a comment about his staff’s diverse makeup.
CNN did not return a request for comment.
