CNN's Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper Question Boss Over Refusal To Show Cover of Charlie Hebdo

Christiane Amanpour, CNN's Chief International Correspondent and host of the daily Amanpour (9pm CAT) as well as "Golden Boy" Anderson Cooper, who hosts Anderson Cooper 360 (3am CAT) both questioned CNN Worldwide President, Jeff Zucker, on the network's refusal to show the cover of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

They questioned Zucker infront of all CNN's staff internationally at the organisation's annual town hall special that is broadcast to all its bureaus.

Politico has more:
CNN's Christiane Amanpour questioned network president Jeff Zucker in front of CNN's global staff on Wednesday over his decision not to air images of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, sources at the network told POLITICO.

In a "town hall" simulcast to CNN bureaus worldwide, the chief international correspondent informed her boss that the Quran does not prohibit showing images of Mohammed and questioned the network's refusal to show the most recent Charlie Hebdo magazine cover on the grounds that it might offend Muslims. Despite conventional wisdom, many Islamic scholars say that the Quran does not explicitly prohibit images of the prophet Mohammed. The view that such depictions should be prohibited is one that has evolved over time in certain strands of the religion. (More on all that here, here and here.)

In response to an earlier question about the depiction of Mohammed, from Anderson Cooper, Zucker had cited staff safety as a key reason for not showing the cartoons. On air, however, CNN has attributed the decision to a network policy "not to show potentially offensive images of the prophet."
Unfortunately for our readers, Zucker's response to Amanpour was unmemorable, several sources said. "Basically he had no response," said one staffer. CNN declined to comment for this piece. We've invited Zucker to respond to Amanpour's point about the Quran, and will update if and when we hear back.

You can read the rest of the article, which includes the rest of what was said at the townhall here.

Candy Crowely Leaving CNN

Candy Crowley, moderator of CNN's State of the Union which airs on a Sunday afternoon here in SA,  is resigning from the network after 27 years.

She has also been seen on other CNN programming, providing political reports and commentary and also contributing greatly during Election cycles.

She took the helm of State of the Union in 2010, after John King stepped down to host another show on CNNUS.

Her work culminated in 2012 when she became the first woman in 20 years to moderate a presidential debate.

She moderates her final State of the Union this Sunday, where she will interview former US President George Bush.

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Below is CNN Boss, Jeff Zucker's full note to staff:

December 5, 2014

In her 27 years at CNN, Candy Crowley has been one of the most important and impactful journalists on our air. Since she joined us in 1987, her assignments have taken her to all 50 states, covering a broad range of political stories, including presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races. Candy made her mark covering the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Bob Dole, Jesse Jackson, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney. And as we all remember, she made her mark yet again in 2012 when she became the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years.

To say she lives and breathes politics is more than an understatement. She has an innate ability to sense its nuance, push its limits, and ask questions that others won’t. She is beloved in Washington even by those that she so skillfully takes to task on Sunday mornings. And she’s an award-winning journalist – taking home everything from a Peabody and Emmys to an Edward R. Murrow award. She is a television news icon.

Thus, it is with mixed emotions, that I wanted to let you know that Candy has let us know that she has made the decision to move on, so she can embark on the next chapter of her already prolific career. As difficult as it is for us to imagine CNN without Candy, we know that she comes to this decision thoughtfully, and she has our full support. There will be more time in the weeks ahead for all of you who have been lucky enough to work with Candy to share your own thanks for all she has done. But for now, on behalf of everyone at CNN, I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation.

Jeff

Piers Morgan "Officially" Gone From CNN

Former CNN anchor Piers Morgan yesterday, 2nd September, announced that he had officially left CNN, DStv 401, yesterday, a few months after his self titled show, Piers Morgan Live was cancelled earlier this year.

He made the announcement via his Twitter account, saying that he declined CNN's offer for him to do about 40 'special' interviews per year. Analysts were never quite convinced that those interviews would ever take place considering Piers' predecessor, Larry King was also to do special interviews for the network after his show was cancelled, but the only special from him we ever saw was one with the cast of Harry Potter.

Piers made it seem as if he declined the network's offer, which is unlikely, as it was probably the network that opted to cancel the agreement. CNN has been making cuts to its headcount as part of a program initiated by its parent company to "future proof" the organisation. CNN boss Jeff Zucker went further to state that any anchor with mediocre ratings would also be cut to reduce costs. As Piers' popularity had declined tremendously in the US over the last year or so, coupled with the fact that CNN has quite a few anchors in the US that have a greater news background than Piers but do not have a show of their own yet (these include the likes of former ABC News guy Bill Weir) waiting to get on the air.

It is currently unknown what is next for Piers, but he said he would be weighing his options. One could speculate that he might return to America's Got Talent (who itself has had a low rated season this year) or its British counterpart.