Posted on 03/01/2005 5:51:11 PM PST by tgslTakoma
WASHINGTON, 2 March 2005 — Arab bashing reached a new low in Washington last week when Ann Coulter, a loudmouthed, mean-spirited, pro-Bush columnist, decided to defend the White House press pass controversy over faux-reporter James Guckert (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon) by writing in her syndicated column: “Press passes can’t be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.”
Thomas, whose Hearst column is distributed by King Features Syndicate, is of Lebanese descent. The former United Press International reporter has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, and has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. She was the first female president of the White House Correspondents Association.
Even her syndicators realized the gaffe. When Coulter’s column was posted on Universal Press Syndicate’s (UPS) website, someone edited out the race-based slur “that old Arab Helen Thomas,” using instead: “that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas.”
But the “old Arab” reference still appears the column posted on Coulter’s website: www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi.
Coulter was, perhaps, taking a cue from the White House, which has slighted Thomas several times since 2003. During a televised news conference, President George W. Bush deliberately snubbed several reporters he ordinarily calls upon, including journalists from the Washington Post, Newsweek, and USA Today. But the most conspicuous recipient of the Bush freeze-out was Thomas, who has barbed and grilled every president since Kennedy and almost always gets to ask a question. Bush pointedly ignored her.
Bush then dealt Thomas a second slight. By custom, Thomas concludes White House press conferences at the president’s signal by saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.” Bush instead ended the conference with his own sign off, “Thank you for your questions,” and killed a decades-old White House custom. Lastly, she was removed from her front row seat, and delegated to a back seat in the press choir.
Is this treatment due to the fact that Thomas has been critical of the Bush administration? She has condemned the terror-fighting Patriot Act and slammed Bush’s domestic and international policies. She also called the Iraq war “a violation of international policy under any circumstance,” and said it is “immoral.”
But she has never been known to mince her words to any president.
There has been disappointingly little reaction in defense of their colleague by White House journalists.
In an article entitled “Lipstick Fascism,” James Wolcott, a Vanity Fair contributing editor, writes: “I wonder what would happen if a writer, say me, were to refer in a Vanity Fair column to ‘that old Jew Norman Podhoretz’ or, naughtier still, ‘that old Jewess Lucianne Goldberg.’
“Through the magic of exaggeration, I can just imagine the commotion. Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz would blow their respective lids...petitions would file in to Vanity Fair demanding that I be fired, or, for penance, be forced to tour Auschwitz with Prince Harry.
“Arabs of course are fair game on talk radio and the trash punditry, of which Ann Coulter is stringbean queen,” says Wolcott. “Presumably Helen Thomas’s very ancestry, about which I know nothing, makes her an incipient terrorist threat, though presumably commando call boy Jeff Gannon would have been coiled to pounce into action if the octogenarian made any sudden violent moves. Coulter’s typically crass wisecrack is the cartoonish version of the hostile profiling of Arabs and Muslims being conducted all over the neoconservative right, as typified by Michelle Malkin’s pioneer work to excuse the Japanese internment in order to justify the preemptive incarceration of Muslims and other suspicious elements.
“I’m sure this sort of thing doesn’t fluster them in the slightest. Conservatism and sadism have become indivisible,” writes Wolcott.
Why is the fact that she is Arab even relevant?
The article says Ann's original wording was changed prior to syndication but the original wording still appears on Ann's site.
To the Democrats, "Arab" must be a four-letter word...
Indeed, I wish that distinction could be made.
But it would appear that -- with the use of "anti-semitism" -- that the line has been forever muddied where religious and "ethnic" Jew are concerned even as the line between Jewish Semites and Arab Semites has become somehow bright.
Because the "ethnicity" of the Jew is predominantly a religious one -- after all, was not the father of the Arabs Abraham as well? -- I'd like to know how the label of anti-semitism can be applied to atheist Jews.
Frankly, I'd like to know how one deems oneself an atheist Jew in the first place.
I found a feature by Pat Robertson most interesting in this respect a couple years ago. He was live in the Holy Land to garner response to the walling off of the Holy Sites as some would-be Solomon set about splitting the city.
The first man he spoke to said "Well, thankfully I'm not religious..." then corrected himself to, "I'm not religious, so thankfully it doesn't affect me at all. They are not places I go to see."
Next, he spoke to two young students who likewise were not "religious." Pat probed further: "Well, how can you claim a right to Israel if you do not believe in the God upon whose promises that claim is based?"
"We believe it is a matter of who is here Now." they said.
Third time was a charm. Pat found an orthodox Jew whose eyes welled with tears at the concern of others for their plight. Mutual blessings ended the piece.
I think that's the problem here. I, for one, am sick to the death of secularist and atheist Jews claiming cover from any and all criticism under the umbrella that is "anti-semitism." It would be just as offensive to me as pro-choice Catholics claiming to be victims of the anti-papists.
Makes no sense. But Big Lies need not, I suppose.
Politicxal correctness is dead. To avoid slurs is to avoid living.
The definition of slur is a moving target defined by the person pulling the target.
Considering how blatantly partisan Helen Thomas is, I can see why the White House has banished her from the front row.
As for Ann's column, she can write whatever she wants. Is Helen Thomas of Arabic descent? Big deal. This article is in error regarding Lucianne Goldberg, however. She is Christian if I remember correctly. Maybe someone will correct me.
Maybe Ann believes Helen Thomas has an Arab bias due to Ms. Thomas' Arabic heritage. All my Lebanese friends are American first, but they are partisan to Lebanese Catholic issues. I don't know anything about Helen Thomas' religion.
If someone were to describe me, they might call me a conservative, white Mississippian in order to peg me. Depending upon the reader, that could make me a racist, backwards, ignorant loon or a God-fearing, hospitable beauty queen. (hah!)
What a hoot. The anti-semitic Arab News complaining about someone being called an "Arab"
Calling Thomas an Arab is an insult to Arabs everywhere...
Why?
Thank you for your general voice of sanity.
Another few threads like this and I may bail on this place.
Come on, you're just not trying. We can get WAY lower than that!
Helen Thomas is a clown, nonetheless, this was a stupid, inexcusable comment by Ann. Not her first either, an probably not her last.
an=and
Bush then dealt Thomas a second slight. By custom, Thomas concludes White House press conferences at the president’s signal by saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.” Bush instead ended the conference with his own sign off, “Thank you for your questions,” and killed a decades-old White House custom. Lastly, she was removed from her front row seat, and delegated to a back seat in the press choir.
Nice job Bush, keep up the good work :)
Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president. Still, it would be suspicious if Dowd were denied a press pass while someone from "Talon News" got one, even if he is a better reporter.
Askel, I'm assuming that you're making a rhetorical statement here so this is for the rest of the folks: According to Orthodox Jews, generally speaking, you are a Jew if your mother was a Jew even if you now declare yourself to be an atheist.
I, for one, am sick to the death of secularist and atheist Jews claiming cover from any and all criticism under the umbrella that is "anti-semitism."
From what I've noticed, most of these wolf-criers you speak of are on the left.
Makes no sense. But Big Lies need not, I suppose.
From that statement, I would infer that you think that this wolf-crying is widespread. Do you?
If Helen Thomas is Lebanese(and therefore an Arab) how is that a slur? If someone calls me a Caucasian or European, they are not "slurring" me, they are describing me.
Reminds me of a quote from the "13th Warrior".
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan: My name is Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan Ibn Al Abbas Ibn Rashid Ibn Hamad.Herger: Eben?
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan: No, listen, My name is Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan. "Ibn" means "son of".
Herger: Eben.
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