Jewish & World News

Candy Crowley, CNN's chief political correspondent and anchor of "State of the Union With Candy Crowley," will be the first female moderator of a U.S. presidential debate since 1992. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the names of the moderators of this year's three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate. In addition to Crowley, Jim Lehrer of PBS' "NewsHour" and Bob Schieffer of CBS' "Face the Nation" will moderate the presidential debates and Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, will moderate the vice presidential debate.

CNN’s decision to fire four Jewish Israeli journalists from the cable network’s Jerusalem bureau earlier this month was due in part to their religion and nationality, and to their perceived inability to operate freely throughout the Middle East, the Algemeiner has learned. “The fact is, just Jewish Israelis were fired from CNN,” said a source who was directly involved in the layoffs and who requested anonymity. While reports said CNN had fired all its Jewish workers from the bureau, the source told the Algemeiner that “they left 2 Jewish Israeli journalists but here’s the catch, they’re each  working one shift a week for 8 hours.”

CNN has reportedly fired most of the Jews in its Jerusalem bureau, cutting half the bureau but leaving Arab workers and reviving charges of CNN's pro-Arab slant. CNN denies the charges, claiming a budgetary downsizing, but two producers in the CNN Jerusalem office confirmed that four of the eight-person bureau, all Jews, were told they were being fired, leaving only one Jewish producer.

Lebanese-born CNN senior editor Octavia Nasr eulogized on her personal blog the spiritual leader of Hizbullah, who died last week, according to the media watchdog Honest Reporting.

Eliot Spitzer, until very recently known primarily as the disgraced former governor of New York, will formally re-emerge as a regular television personality as the host of new prime-time news discussion program on CNN next fall.

Time Warner Inc.’s CNN, the 24-hour cable news network, stopped using the Associated Press service and materials to focus on its internal newsgathering efforts.

Fox News had its best January in the history of the network, and was the only cable news network to grow year-to-year. FNC also had the top 13 programs on cable news in total viewers for the fifth month in a row, and the top 13 programs in the A25-54 demographic for the first time in more than five years. • FNC grew in double digits in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic from January 2009. In prime time, it was up 22% in total viewers and 51% in the demo. CNN was down 34% and 37% and MSNBC down 26% and 38%. In total day, FNC was up 16% and 28%. CNN was down 34% and 41% and MSNBC down 28% and 39%. Last January all networks performed while with the Inauguration coverage. This month, the big political event was Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, which FNC dominated in the ratings. • Special Report with Bret Baier/Brit Hume was #1 for the 100th consecutive month. • Fox Report #1 for 100th consecutive month. • Sean Hannity had his best month ever (since it launched ...