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Arab Bashing Reaches Low With Thomas Slur
Arab News ^ | March 2, 2005 | Barbara Ferguson

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coulter; dontlookhere; gannon; hateamericafilth; helenthomas; pictureofhelenthomas; seahag
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1 posted on 03/01/2005 5:51:11 PM PST by tgslTakoma
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To: tgslTakoma
Ann Coulter, a loudmouthed, mean-spirited, pro-Bush columnist

If the Arabs don't like Ann, that makes her even better in my book...

2 posted on 03/01/2005 5:53:16 PM PST by NCjim
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To: tgslTakoma

With all of the nasty things that old bat Thomas has said about Bush, it is about time some conservative pundits starting calling the senile skank by her true colors. Thomas makes Rather look impartial.


3 posted on 03/01/2005 5:53:54 PM PST by peyton randolph (CAIR supports TROP terrorists)
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To: tgslTakoma

Well, I have to ask, is Helen old? Is she Arab? Well,,,,


4 posted on 03/01/2005 5:54:28 PM PST by austinaero
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To: tgslTakoma

"She also called the Iraq war “a violation of international policy under any circumstance,” and said it is “immoral.”

More to the point, why does Helen Thomas think the liberation of millions of Iraqi Arabs is "immoral"? Did she think Saddam's continuation in power was "moral"? (That would be a logical conclusion from her remarks. . .)


5 posted on 03/01/2005 5:54:55 PM PST by CondorFlight
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To: NCjim

Ann's to bright to use a cheap unfunny slam like that. Just gives them grist for the mill. Thomas has way to many legitimately humorous attributes that could have been used to far greater effect.


6 posted on 03/01/2005 5:55:14 PM PST by traderrob6 (http://www.exposingtheleft.blogspot.com)
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To: tgslTakoma
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.

I love that man!

7 posted on 03/01/2005 5:55:47 PM PST by Mr. Buzzcut (metal god ... visit The Ponderosa .... www.vandelay.com)
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To: tgslTakoma
It still says "old arab" on Ann's website. Even so, it is mean spirited, evil, nasty, vindictive, and just plane not nice of Ann to call Ms. Thomas "old."
8 posted on 03/01/2005 5:55:58 PM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: NCjim

Here's what Ann Coulter actually said: "...Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president." I don't see the word 'Arab' there, do you?


9 posted on 03/01/2005 5:56:13 PM PST by The Loan Arranger (The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.)
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To: tgslTakoma

They can dish it out, but they sure cannot take it....typical loser leftists. I say, if you cannot take it, then DON'T DISH IT OUT!! You are learning that when you have a REAL PRESIDENT to deal with, you will get it handed back to you.

Sorry , no wimps or liberals allowed.


10 posted on 03/01/2005 5:56:37 PM PST by EagleUSA
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To: The Loan Arranger
plane plain
11 posted on 03/01/2005 5:57:48 PM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: tgslTakoma
Is this treatment due to the fact that Thomas has been critical of the Bush administration

No, it's because she in a hideous offensive idiot. Next question...
12 posted on 03/01/2005 5:57:55 PM PST by teenyelliott (The more I read about our govt, the more I want to buy an island)
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To: tgslTakoma
More Thomas idiocy here
13 posted on 03/01/2005 5:57:56 PM PST by traderrob6 (http://www.exposingtheleft.blogspot.com)
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To: tgslTakoma

If true, the statement by Colter is racist and dispicable.

From what I know of Colter, I wouldn't doubt it.

Her and Mike Savage are our version of Michael Moore, and should be shunned.


14 posted on 03/01/2005 5:58:24 PM PST by zbigreddogz
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To: tgslTakoma

Ya know we have RULES around here..... Ahem...


15 posted on 03/01/2005 5:59:57 PM PST by konaice
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To: The Loan Arranger

Somehow I knew someone would come along and clear up this lie.


16 posted on 03/01/2005 6:00:42 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: NCjim

Since when is calling an arab an arab offensive.


17 posted on 03/01/2005 6:00:49 PM PST by pissant
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To: konaice


18 posted on 03/01/2005 6:00:51 PM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: zbigreddogz
If true, the statement by Colter is racist and dispicable. From what I know of Colter, I wouldn't doubt it. Her and Mike Savage are our version of Michael Moore, and should be shunned.

Oh, buddy, are you in trouble now!

And personally, I think Savage is funny.
19 posted on 03/01/2005 6:01:24 PM PST by teenyelliott (The more I read about our govt, the more I want to buy an island)
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To: tgslTakoma

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.

Put in her place at last!

That seat had a sign on it, "Reserved for SeaHag".





20 posted on 03/01/2005 6:02:04 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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