CNN anchor quits after row of tweets on Charlie Hebdo attack

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After 34 years of service, anchor Jim Clancy has left CNN following a row of tweets about the attack on Charlie Hebdo, according to the New York Times.

The veteran anchor resigned from the job of more than three decades after he tweeted about the attack on the French satirical magazine, which left 12 dead.

Clancy took to the social networking site Twitter on the day of the attack and wrote about the cartoons the paper had published depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), but then began criticising supporters of Israel and sparring with other Twitter users.

“The cartoons NEVER mocked the Prophet,” he said. “They mocked how the COWARDS tried to distort his word.”

Clancy, who anchored the global news show The Brief, then tweeted, “These accounts are part of a campaign to do PR for #Israel @JewsMakingNews @elderofziyon Nothing illegal – but PR not HR: Human Rights.”

The anchor’s Twitter account has since been deleted, but the tweets were published on several websites, including Gawker, Twitchy and Mediaite.

CNN confirmed on Saturday that Clancy had left the network but declined to comment on whether his departure was related to the Twitter messages. Clancy declined to comment.