Jack Cafferty
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| Jack Cafferty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Born | December 14, 1942 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. |
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| Occupation | Commentator | |
| Family | 4 children, 4 grandchildren | |
| Spouse | Carol | |
| Ethnicity | Irish American | |
| Religious belief(s) | Lutheran | |
| Notable credit(s) | CNN's 'Situation Room' | |
| Official website | ||
Jack Cafferty (born December 14, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois) is a CNN commentator and occasional host of specials. In the summer of 2005, Cafferty joined The Situation Room.
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[edit] Career
Widely regarded as CNN's resident curmudgeon[1], Emmy award winning journalist Cafferty started his career in Reno, Nevada in 1960. He became the news director and co-anchor for the 6 and 10 o'clock news at WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1977, Cafferty began to anchor national and local programs in New York including Strictly Business, Live at Five and the Scarborough-Cafferty Report. He remained with WNBC-TV for eleven years and anchored Strictly Business until 1989. From 1989 to 1992 Cafferty was an anchor for WNYW-TV's Newsline New York and News at 7 on Fox 5. In the 1990s, Cafferty became a prominent business reporter during his 1992-1998 tenure as a News at 10 anchor on New York's local WB-11 network.[2]
In the summer of 2005, Cafferty joined The Situation Room, CNN's weekday afternoon newscast and In the money, a weekend show about financial markets and economics, though he was replaced from the latter soon after. Cafferty also formerly co-anchored CNN's weekday morning broadcast, American Morning. Before joining CNN, Cafferty was best known as an anchorman on local New York City television stations such as WPIX, WNEW-TV and WNBC-TV. On The Cafferty File, his nightly segment on The Situation Room, he offers commentary and personal opinions in the vein of Andy Rooney.
In October 2006, Cafferty hosted a 5-part miniseries on CNN titled Broken Government. The series detailed problems with the two political parties, government bureaucracy, and the federal court system. Viewer email messages replaced the news ticker that usually appears on the bottom of the screen.
[edit] Book
Cafferty is the author of the book It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America which was published on September 10, 2007 by John Wiley & Sons.[3]. The book is a satirical critique of political and social issues, including the long arm of big business, the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina, expanding on many of themes covered on Cafferty's Situation Room segment. He strongly chastises the growing culture of sensationalism and tabloid journalism in modern news media.[3].
Portions of the book are autobiographical, describing Cafferty's hard-knock childhood and short-lived military career as well as his foray into journalism. According to Cafferty: "Very little of my backstory qualifies as Hallmark Card material, but it may help you to make sense of the way I see and interpret what's going on around me." [3]
[edit] Controversial remarks
Cafferty's outspoken and provocative style of commentary has on occasion led to public outcry. Though he acknowledges his habit of "saying some pretty outrageous stuff", Cafferty has explained that this is part of his job description:"I get paid to ask questions I don't know the answers to and to complain about the things that bother me."[3]
[edit] Bush Administration
Cafferty initially supported the U.S. government's decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. He says he "bought the whole song and dance about WMDs. I was caught up in the national hysteria that followed 9/11, and was captive to the political manipulation, if you will, that took place in all of us." He revised his position when the Downing Street memo was leaked in 2005 and has since become a harsh critic of the administration.
On the Iraq War, Cafferty stated: "In my humble opinion the Bush administration used 9/11 as an excuse to start the war in Iraq. People make a lot of money during wartime... $600 billion we've spent there so far.... and a lot of that money has gone to friends of the administration. And of course there is all that oil. I don't think for a single second there was anything honorable about the decision to invade a sovereign country. They had nothing to do with 9/11 and had done nothing to the United States. But hey... what do I know?"[4]
On February 15, 2006, when Vice President Dick Cheney consented to give an interview to Brit Hume of the Fox News Network after shooting Harry Whittington in a hunting accident, Cafferty caused a stir by remarking, "I would guess it didn't exactly represent a profile in courage for the vice president to wander over there to the F-word network for a sit down with Brit Hume. I mean, that's a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain't it?"[5] As this is a common euphemism used at CNN to refer to its competitor network (cf. He Who Shall Not Be Named), Cafferty later clarified: "Get your mind out of the gutter. The F-word is Fox."[5] A spokesperson from Fox fired back: "Jack is about as unstable as CNN's programming lineup - nobody pays much attention to his incoherent ramblings."[5]
Cafferty was reprimanded by the president of CNN when he called Donald Rumsfeld "an obnoxious jerk and war criminal" on the eve of the 2006 midterm election.[6] He made an on-air acknowledgment of having "stepped over the line" however he later told an interviewer: "I will go to my grave as Jack Cafferty, Private Citizen, believing that these people committed war crimes."[6]
[edit] The U.S. Democratic Party
The Democratic Party does not escape Cafferty's scathing criticism. When Nancy Pelosi claimed that the Republicans were blocking measures to withdraw American troops from Iraq, by using fillibuster tactics, Cafferty called her out, saying: "Bologna, Madam Speaker. Appropriations bills for the war must pass the House of Representatives by a simple majority. It is completely within your power to stop the funding of the war in Iraq. You have simply chosen not to do so. In fact, I did a little homework. The Speaker of the House of Representatives decides which pieces of legislation even come to the floor of the House debate and/or a vote."
Cafferty repeatedly criticizes what he calls the Democrats lack of action to honor their campaign promises to end the Iraq War. He charges that "the Democrats were handed a golden opportunity to challenge President Bush on the war when they were given control of Congress in the midterm elections last year. So far they have done absolutely nothing."[4]
His cynicism is not reserved for the Republican Party. Cafferty once stated that "It seems the Democrats are the greatest thing the Republicans have going for them sometimes."[4]
[edit] Middle East
Cafferty has been accused of having a "simplistic"[7] view of the Middle East.
Cafferty courted controversy on September 23, 2004 while discussing terrorist demands for the release of two female scientists from an Iraqi prison and remarking: "Given the way these mutants treat women in their societies, the women are probably better off in U.S. custody. 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."[7]
On November 17, 2004, he touched on the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal's South Asia Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl. Cafferty's remarked that "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 barbarian. Somehow, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the sensitivity of the Arab world. They don’t seem to have very much. It’s going to come down to them or us."[7] The next day the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee accused Cafferty of "hateful rhetoric" and stated that he had "a history of insensitive remarks towards many minority groups".[7]
[edit] Anna Nicole Smith
At the peak of CNN's coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, Cafferty was again criticized for being flippant when he famously asked his colleague Wolf Blitzer,"Is Anna Nicole Smith still dead?"[6]
Cafferty later explained to Time Magazine why the relentless media coverage surrounding Smith's demise had frustrated him: "Because we'd done two hours on this peroxide never-was, passing apparently from some kind of drug overdose in some seedy hotel room in Florida. It's like, who cares? Nobody cares."[6]
[edit] China
On the April 9, 2008 broadcast of CNN's The Situation Room, when asked to comment on the United States' relationship with China, Cafferty responded, "I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years".[8][9] The Legal Immigrant Association started an online petition calling for a formal apology, indicating that Mr. Cafferty's rant was anti-Chinese in every way, and has had the effect of exacerbating negative attitudes held by Americans toward Chinese and Chinese Americans. On the April 14, 2008 broadcast of CNN's "Situation Room", Jack Cafferty commented on his remarks by saying: "Last week, during a discussion of the controversy surrounding China's hosting of the Olympic Games, I said that the Chinese are basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they have been for the last 50 years. I was referring to the Chinese government, and not to Chinese people or to Chinese-Americans."[10] CNN issued a controversial apology on April 14, to "anyone who has interpreted the comments" to be causing offense.[11] Not satisfied with CNN's response, several thousand demonstrators picket CNN's Hollywood office in response to Cafferty's remarks, and demanded that CNN remove him from the network.[12]A similar demonstration also took place at the CNN office in Atlanta, Georgia.[13]
On April 24, 2008, beautician Liang Shubing and teacher Li Lilan filed a lawsuit against Cafferty and CNN, seeking $1.3 billion in damages ($1 per person in the People's Republic of China) for "violating the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people".[14][15] The suit was concurrently filed by the PRC's Foreign Ministry in Beijing.[citation needed]
A protest was held on April 26, 2008 in front of CNN headquarters in Atlanta.[16] On the same day, a few thousand Chinese Americans protested in front of CNN office in San Francisco. [17] [18]
CNN President Jim Walton has apologized for the insulting remarks by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty on China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday.
"On behalf of CNN I'd like to apologize to the Chinese people for that," said Walton in a letter to Chinese ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong, according to Qin.
Walton also said, "CNN has the highest respect for Chinese people around the world and we have no doubt that there was genuine offense felt by them over the Jack Cafferty commentary."
(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)
[edit] Awards
Cafferty has earned many distinctions in his careering including the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, an Emmy award and the New York Associated Press State Broadcasters Award.[2]
[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 and knocking him off his bike on May 14, 2003. The bicyclist was slightly injured. A traffic officer and several pedestrians ran after Mr. Cafferty's car, but he ran at least two red lights without stopping, according to a police complaint. Cafferty was sentenced to a $250 fine and 70 hours of community service. [19]
[edit] References
- ^ "Political Humor: Jack Cafferty Quotes", About.com, 21 September 2005.
- ^ a b "Anchors and Reporters", CNN, 10 July 2005.
- ^ a b c d It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America. Wiley. ISBN 9780470144794.
- ^ a b c "Jack Cafferty Live Chat", Huffington Post, 12 September 2007.
- ^ a b c "Caustic Commentator", The Washington Post, 2006-02-27.
- ^ a b c d "CNN's Jack Cafferty Mouths Off", Time Magazine, 15 September 2007.
- ^ a b c d "Jack Cafferty In His Own Words", American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 18 November 2004.
- ^ YouTube - Jack Cafferty showing complete ignorance
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ CNN apologises to China over 'thugs and goons' comment by Jack Cafferty Alexi Mostrous, Times, April 16, 2008
- ^ "Protesters take CNN to task over commentator's China remarks" (2008-04-20)
- ^ Protesters target CNN after Jack Cafferty's remarks on China, Los Angeles Times, Retrieved on April 20, 2008.
- ^ www.ibtimes.com, CNN Faces $1.3 Bln Lawsuit - $1 per person in China
- ^ reuters.com, CNN now sued for $1.3 billion - $1 per person in China
- ^ Chinese protest CNN commentator's critical comments
- ^ news.xinhuanet.com
- ^ mitbbs.com
- ^ Metro Briefing: New York
[edit] External links
- Jack Cafferty at the Internet Movie Database
- Jack Cafferty - official CNN bio.
- The Cafferty File - official CNN blog.
- In the Money - official CNN site.
- It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars and Losers Who Are Hurting America by Jack Cafferty, official site.
- The Official Campaign to Give Jack Cafferty a Show
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