Originally published at http://www.kfml.org/index_files/Page1002.htm
Jim Clancy brings the experience of more than three decades covering the world to every newscast on CNN International. He didn’t just read about the collapse of Communism, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the siege of Beirut, the Rwanda Genocide, or all of the Iraq wars. He was there.
His career includes reporting on the events that have shaped history over the last quarter century. His interviews with international personalities reads like a “Who’s Who” of our times.
Based at CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta, Clancy currently anchors ‘The Brief’, which airs weekdays at 11a ET.
In his 29 years with the network, Clancy has taken viewers to places all over the world from Johannesburg, South Africa to Shanghai, China and Beirut, Lebanon. Clancy has hosted several panels featuring some of the world’s most prominent figures including an unprecedented live session in Beijing examining China’s rise on the world stage for ‘CNN Connects.’ In Davos, Switzerland, Arab Heads of State sat alongside an Israeli to hear all sides in the debate over Democracy. While in New Delhi, a vocal audience exchanged strong views with their own politicians and critics of outsourcing jobs from the U.S. to India.
Additionally in 2004, Clancy hosted a discussion forum ‘Countdown to Handover: The Arab Pulse’ in which Arab journalists hotly debated the prospects for peace and stability in Iraq.
Clancy helped lead CNN International’s coverage of the 2003 War in the Gulf that led to the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. During the invasion, his critical examination of the military and humanitarian aspects of the conflict gave viewers an independent, unbiased perspective on the war. A veteran correspondent who has been travelling to Iraq for more than two decades, he brings perspective to the ongoing debate over Iraq’s future.
Inside Iraq, his coverage focused beyond the fall of Saddam Hussein to the looting of the National Museum and the charges of payoffs and power plays that ultimately led to the arrest of a “self-declared Mayor” of Baghdad. His years of experience covering Iraq also contributed to a deeper perspective of what the Iraqi people endured during decades of dictatorship and what their aspirations are for the future.
Following the September 11th terrorist attacks on America, Clancy traveled to Afghanistan to cover the War on Terrorism, meet with Taliban leaders and witness the collapse of their grip on power.
Having lived in Beirut and worked in almost every Arab country, Clancy also has a seasoned understanding of the Middle East. He most recently reported on the conflict between Israel and Lebanon for both CNNI and CNN/U.S. from Beirut. He flew with Yasser Arafat and now Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas aboard Arafat’s private jet. He interviewed Ariel Sharon as he declared control over most of Beirut. He sat alongside Yitzhak Rabin for comments on the future of peace in both on and off-the-record conversations.
Jim Clancy’s wide-ranging interest in international affairs is evident in Africa as much, if not more than anywhere else. Clancy played a key role in bringing the half-hour weekly program ‘Inside Africa’ to air to give the world a more balanced and more accurate view of the problems and the progress being made on the continent.
Clancy has traveled extensively in Africa, meeting and interviewing Heads of State in Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Algeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zimbabwe and more. For his work on Inside Africa, he received the A.H. Boerma Award 2000-01 from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for increasing public awareness of hunger in the world.
From 1982 to 1996, Clancy was a CNN international correspondent in the Beirut, Frankfurt, Rome and London bureaus. During this time, he won with the George Polk Award for his reporting on the genocide in Rwanda, the Alfred I. duPont Award for coverage of the war in Bosnia and an Emmy Award for reporting on the famine and international intervention in Somalia.
Jim Clancy joined CNN in 1981 as a national correspondent after an extensive, award-winning career in local radio and television in Denver (KFML) and San Francisco.
