CNN should fire Christiane Amanpour: Warner Bros. – Business News
The widower of legendary company gadfly Evelyn Y. Davis is asking on Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief David Zaslav to fire CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour over her “antisemitic” declare that Israeli hostages have been “treated better” than Gazans — saying her apology final week is “not enough.”
Taking a web page from his late spouse’s playbook, Patterson, a WBD investor, despatched a sharply worded letter to Zaslav on Monday demanding Amanpour’s dismissal.
“As a stockholder in WBD, I urge you to fire Christiane Amanpour for her antisemitic statement that Israeli hostages were treated better than average Gazans,” the investor wrote within the letter obtained by The Post.
A Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder is demanding that the company fire CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour. @amanpour/X
“This is an outrage to American and Israeli heroes who are fighting a war against Hamas and other terrorists. It is an outrage to Holocaust survivors and their families. Fire Amanpour to prove you disagree with her vile statements.”
Patterson, a 70-year-old former diplomat, mentioned he was motivated to behave after watching Amanpour’s feedback, which aired reside on Oct. 13 as Hamas launched the final 20 surviving hostages underneath a US-brokered cease-fire.
Amanpour advised CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the hostages “were probably being treated better than the average Gazan, because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had.”
Hours later, Amanpour walked back the assertion on air, admitting her phrasing was “insensitive and wrong.”
“From speaking to many former hostages and their families, like everyone I’ve been horrified at what Hamas has subjected them to over two long years,” she mentioned, recounting their accounts of hunger, beatings and years spent in underground tunnels.
But Patterson advised The Post he was unmoved by Amanpour’s assertion.
James Patterson (pictured with late spouse Evelyn Y. Davis in 2005) fired off a letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav. Courtesy James Patterson
He accused the veteran correspondent of “promoting hatred for Jews” and “damaging CNN’s brand beyond repair.”
“I don’t accept Amanpour’s apology,” Patterson, who’s primarily based in Washington, DC, mentioned in an e mail.
“She’s done it before. How much hate will Zaslav allow her to broadcast?”
He added: “She is promoting the view that the terrorists who committed and supported the Oct. 7 attacks are innocent victims. This is a lie.”
“Amanpour is biased against Israel. She deserves to be fired,” Patterson asserted.
Earlier reside on air, I spoke about what a day of actual pleasure that is, for Israeli households whose family members are lastly being returned from two years of horrific Hamas captivity, and for civilians in Gaza, who’ve lastly had a reprieve from two years of brutal, lethal struggle.I… pic.twitter.com/3OppU0kUhR— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 13, 2025
Patterson mentioned he owns about 300 shares of Warner Bros. Discovery stock and has written to Zaslav up to now urging him to sell CNN.
In his letter, Patterson referenced his late spouse, a Holocaust survivor who was identified for ceaselessly attending company conferences to confront executives.
He mentioned Amanpour’s “antisemitic statements are hurtful to me and my family.”
“My late wife was a Holocaust survivor,” the investor wrote. “Amanpour’s repeated antisemitic statements are cause for her immediate dismissal.”
Amanpour sparked outrage over a remark final week about Israeli hostages being handled “better” than Gazans. Getty Images
Patterson urged Zaslav to “have the courage to fire Amanpour.”
“If he wants a lesson in courage, I suggest he read about my late wife Evelyn Y. Davis,” Patterson advised The Post.
“She was the most courageous person I ever knew.”
Davis spent more than 5 a long time confronting CEOs at shareholder conferences to demand transparency and accountability.
Known for her flamboyant outfits and relentless questioning, she helped push reforms in company governance earlier than her death in 2018 at age 89.
In a June 2023 letter, Patterson referred to as Amanpour a “disgrace” for equating Israeli victims with Palestinian attackers during a broadcast and accused the community of bias towards Jews.
Amanpour, one of the community’s longest-serving correspondents, has been a fixture at CNN for many years.
Israeli forces have leveled a lot of the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7, 2023 assaults by Hamas. AP
Her reporting on the Middle East has drawn scrutiny.
The pro-Israel group CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) has accused Amanpour of harboring “animus toward the Jewish state” whereas demonstrating a frequent “impulse to smear Israel.”
In 2023, Amanpour apologized after referring to a terrorist assault that claimed the lives of three Israeli settlers within the West Bank as a “shootout.”
In April of that yr, two British-Israeli sisters and their mom have been shot lifeless by Palestinian gunmen close to a freeway junction within the Jordan Valley. Lucy Dee and her daughters Rina, 15, and Maia Dee, 20, had immigrated from the UK to a Jewish settlement within the West Bank.
Patterson demanded that Zaslav (above) show “courage” and fire Amanpour. REUTERS
The perpetrators have been later tracked down and killed by Israeli security forces. Hamas, the terrorist group, claimed accountability and described the assault as retaliation for Israeli actions on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Amanpour has by no means straight addressed allegations of anti-Israel bias. In June, she advised the Status e-newsletter that she “never hear[d] myself being called ‘partisan’” and that she “inform[s] the reality and the tales from all over the world.
“I’m sure there are a chorus of complainers on social media,” Amanpour mentioned.
“But I don’t pay attention at all. My bars are ‘truthful not neutral’ and ‘get it right.’”
The Post has sought remark from CNN and WBD.
