Jack Cafferty
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| Image:Caffertyjack.jpg Jack Cafferty |
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| Born: | 1942 |
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| Occupation: | News Anchor |
Jack Cafferty (born 1942) is a CNN commentator and a host of the weekend financial show In The Money. In the summer of 2005, Cafferty joined The Situation Room, CNN's new weekday afternoon newscast. Cafferty formerly co-anchored CNN's weekday morning broadcast, American Morning.
Before CNN, Cafferty worked for several New York television stations. He was one of Sue Simmons' co-anchors on WNBC's Live at Five and anchored WPIX's News at Ten with Kaity Tong.
From 1989-1992, Cafferty anchored Newsline New York, a nightly news and interview format program on WNYW-TV, as well as co-anchoring the evening broadcast for Fox 5 News at 7.
In the 1970s, he was anchor of the local television news in Des Moines, Iowa at the local NBC affiliate, WHO channel 13, and hosted a popular segment "Cafferty Is" whereby he would perform various tasks and occupations.
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[edit] Controversial remarks
Cafferty's comments on Arabs and Muslims have become a main focus of criticism. On September 23, 2004, while discussing terrorist demands to release two female scientists from Iraqi prison, Cafferty emphatically stated "Given the way these mutants treat women in their societies, the women are probably better off in U.S. custody." He later added, "They treat women like furniture in those countries. If I was a woman, I think I'd rather be in an American jail cell than I would be living with one of those-whatever they are over there." [1]
On November 17, 2004, Cafferty made the following comment while discussing video footage of a United States Marine shooting an apparently un-armed and wounded Iraqi insurgent: "The Arab world is where innocent people are kidnapped, blindfolded, tied up, tortured and beheaded, and then videotape of all of this is released to the world as though they're somehow proud of their barbarism. Somehow, I wouldn't be too concerned about the sensitivity of the Arab world. They don't seem to have very much." He added: "It's going to come down to them or us." [2]
On January 19, 2006, Cafferty implied that the Bush Administration was behind the release of a new tape from Osama bin Laden: "The last time we got a tape from Osama bin Laden was right before the 2004 presidential election. Now here we are four days away from hearings starting in Washington into the wire tapping of America's telephones without bothering to get a court order or a warrant, and up pops another tape from Osama bin Laden. Coincidence? Who knows?" [3] [4]
On May 11, 2006, Cafferty said, in response to a news story about the NSA analyzing Americans' phone records, "We better all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because he might be all that is standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country." [5]
On May 18, 2006, Cafferty charged US Republican Congressional leaders with pandering to social conservatives with a backroom approval of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. "This is all being done by the Republican majority in an effort to appeal to right-wing nuts in the Republican Party ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections. Ignore all of the pressing issues facing the country, and instead go grovel at the feet of the lunatic fringe." [6]
On August 28, 2006, Cafferty said that "political stupidity [is] reaching a new level" in regards to Katherine Harris' comments about the separation of church and state being a "lie" and her views on religion's place in politics. After finishing his segment, the anchor suggested that Katherine Harris' comments might prompt people to read the Federalist Papers. Cafferty replied, "Maybe Katherine Harris killed JonBenet Ramsey," referencing the absurdity of intense media coverage of murder suspect John Mark Karr.
On November 6, 2006, after reading an editorial from the Military Times calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's removal, Cafferty stated "They didn’t even mention that he’s also an obnoxious jerk and a war criminal." A few hours later Cafferty said he "stepped over the line" with that comment. [7][8]
Strongly anti-Bush, he has also written that he "can't stand" Hillary Clinton.
On February 8, 2007, during Cafferty's segment on CNN's "The Situation Room" on the day of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, he asked of CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer "Is Anna Nicole Smith still dead, Wolf?". Blitzer replied "Yes, we're going to -- updating our viewers coming up shortly on...". Immediately, Cafferty interjected an emphatic "Can't wait for that!" Cafferty's remarks are logged on the show's transcripts. [9][10]
[edit] Bicycle incident
Cafferty pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, assault and harassment after striking a cyclist on May 14, 2003. Cafferty was sentenced to a $250 fine and 70 hours of community service. [11]
[edit] Online campaign
An online campaign aimed at convincing CNN to give Jack Cafferty his own weekday newscast was launched in July 2006. Organizers state, “We believe that cable news should have more journalists who report on important issues and hold politicians accountable.” [12]
[edit] Broken government
In October 2006, Cafferty hosted a 5-part miniseries on CNN titled "Broken Government." The series detailed problems with the two political parties, government beauracracy, and the federal court system. Viewer email messages replaced the news ticker that usually appears on the bottom of the screen.
[edit] External links
