Posted on 06/07/2010 4:36:03 AM PDT by SJackson
At a Jewish heritage celebration at the White House at the end of May, the dean of the Washington press corps, the esteemed Helen Thomas, shared a few thoughts on Israel when prompted by Rabbi David Nesenoff, who was attending the White House festivities.
“Get the hell out of Palestine,” the longtime White House correspondent told Israeli Jews living in their homeland.
The shocked rabbi asked where they should go.
“Go home,” Thomas replied. She helpfully delineated possible locales, like Poland or Germany or even the United States. How nice.
Apparently, to Thomas, the idea of Jews living in the Middle East, their ancient homeland, is horrific. She apparently prefers her Middle East the same way Hamas does, Judenfrei.
As you can imagine, a minor brouhaha has developed since Thomas’s eloquent ruminations have found their way to YouTube. Though she has apologized in a statement for her remarks, few have taken her apology as particularly convincing. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer has said Thomas should “lose her job over this.” Her agent, Nine Speakers Inc., has dropped her as a client. Many others have condemned Thomas’s words as hateful.
I agree with Fleischer. It is probably about time for Thomas to call it a career. But Thomas should go only partly because of her, let’s say, untactful comments. Frankly, she just isn’t a particularly impressive reporter or columnist anymore—if she ever was. As Slate.com media critic Jack Shafer noted way back in 2003, while Thomas used to ask questions at White House briefings, her questions have become more like speeches.
Every administration is seemingly forced to accept Thomas as this sort of untouchable icon. She is afforded a front row center seat in the White House briefing room and is regularly treated with great deference. People have developed this mythology that she is a national treasure. But for what? What major story has she broken? I don’t recall a single one of her opinion columns as being particularly thoughtful.
As a journalist friend noted on Twitter, “the movie ‘National Treasure’ (and the sequel) is more of a national treasure” than Helen Thomas.
Yet, for some reason we are supposed to marvel and bask in the greatness of Helen Thomas much in the same way we honor the historic importance of Jackie Robinson. Thomas is seen, after all, as a trailblazer for women journalists, much like Robinson was a trailblazer for African Americans in Major League Baseball.
There are too many differences between the two to note, but perhaps the most important is that that Jackie Robinson was exceptionally good at his job; Helen Thomas is not. What’s more, as good as Jackie Robinson was and as historic as he was, the Dodgers still would not have let him play baseball well into his 80s. For some reason, Thomas seems to have acquired the lifetime tenure normally reserved for college professors and Supreme Court justices.
That Helen Thomas is considered the dean of the White House press corps is only slightly less embarrassing than former Klu Klux Klan Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd being considered the moral conscience of the Senate.
It’s time for Thomas to be sent packing. Maybe Hamas needs a new communications director.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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As I alluded to Friday, Helen's remarks were apparently made at the White House Jewish heritage event, in the White House.
Please let this be the thing that permanently retires this useless (liberal) fossil.
Oh BTW, there is no such place as palestine. There is Israel, or perhaps the middle east.
A Jewish reporter should take Helen’s seat in the press room.
Then say when she complains.. “What, do you want me to do go home?”
What did John Huston's character - Noah Cross - say in Chinatown:
Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.
Just which of these categories Ms Thomas falls into is up to the reader.....
Maybe Helen should be consistent and leave the US. It isn’t her natural homeland, but the Hebrew nation has far greater claim to their land than she does to hers.
Hezbollah, the Nation of Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Obama White House, Jeremiah Wright’s church, the European Union, ... her career possibilities are almost endless.
And why was the anti semitic hag invited to Jewish Heritage celebration. And why did she attend?
Good article which points to the truth never mentioned about Hellen—she`s boring. She`] #/! New York Times of political reporters, setting the agenda for so long that no one stops to examine the merits. Just as Byrd reveals the rotten core of limousine liberalism [spouting about civil rights while hiding his hood in a closet], Thomas reveals the casual antisemitism of so many libs I`ve met. The only good thing about Obama`s rise is that the American people are slowly losing their delusions about how libs are really people-loving colored-blind folks for equality for all—they just hide their prejudices well.
Go home to the Heath where you belong, Helen. It's over.
If Hearst fires Helen, SHE WILL IMMEDIATELY LOSE HER WHITE HOUSE PRESS CREDENTIALS.
E-mail Hearst now:
Abe Foxman of the ADL hasn;t said a PEEP!! HYPOCRITE...if this had been a Republican, Katie bar the door!!
bttt
Probably the same reason ants attend picnics.
Free food, and the chance to be unwelcome and irritating.
No, you're mistaken. The ADL has both criticized the statement and correctly rejected Helen's rather tepid apology .
Where?? Haven’t Heard it and Haven’t READ it...ANYWHERE?? Show me!! Abe Foxman would be on TV 24-7 if this had beena Pubbie!!
Gee... I would have thought that objectivity was THE primary possession of ANYONE who even casually ragarded him/her self as a ‘journalist’. With your objectivity intact just about all you needed was some paper and a pencil.
So much for journalistic ‘objectivity’. (I almost laugh at myself for even recalling that there ever was such a thing in the US)
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
Helen Thomas’s statement of regret does not go far enough. Her remarks were outrageous, offensive and inappropriate, especially since she uttered them on a day the White House had set aside to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of American Jews during Jewish America Heritage Month.
Her suggestion that Israelis should go back to Poland and Germany is bigoted and shows a profound ignorance of history. We believe Thomas needs to make a more forceful and sincere apology for the pain her remarks have caused.
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/5779_62.htm
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