She is/was, unfortunately, a cog in the machine. Very useful for dispensing biased news in her day.
"Well, you know, the Egyptians used to breed the strongest Jewish males with the most beautiful and strongest Jewish females to make stronger Jewish slaves to build their pyramids.
Did Congress make a law, Dave? No? Then STFU and worry about something important. Free speech doesn’t mean there are no consequences for your actions.
There was no ‘official’ dismissal of Helen Thomas. There was a public outcry which she could not withstand. If she were in the right, it would all die down.
Conservatives should always protect speech, all speech. That’s how you find out who the enemy is. Even back in the 60’s the mantra was, “I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll defend your right to the death to say it.”
The trick is to not have the definition of right and wrong become ‘mixed’.
She was a columnist I heard. Free speech doesn't mean free of the repercussions.
Gee, that never happened before. Ask Don Imus or Jimmy the Greek. Limbaugh got tossed from football play-by-play for his comment about McNab. When you make a controversial statement that puts the heat on your employer, you get the boot.
Here’s what’s great about the Helen Thomas debacle: It’s one of their guys for a change.
People on the Right are ALWAYS being destroyed for this sort of thing.
The only way to rid ourselves of this PC crap is to use it against the Left when we are able...
She does not have a right to continued employment, at the discretion of her employer.
Hint. It does not.
It is not like we need Helen Thomas to hear the (as Tony Snow put it MHRIP) “the Hezbollah view”.
Sedition, treason, espionage, libel, slander, perjury, and inciting a riot (including by yelling FIRE in a crowded theater) are all examples of speech that is not protected by the first amendment.
That said, "hate" speech is free speech. Within certain parameters.
There was nothing illegal about Helen's bigoted statement. However she was not guaranteed White House press credentials "by law". She was not guaranteed employment "in spite of ugly comments she may make".
Rush Limbaugh was libeled with bogus "racist quotes" on wikiquotes and denied the right to bid on a football franchise by the NFL. THAT was an illegal offense against Mr. Limbaugh.
Shoe is on the other foot now and the Left makes excuses and offers defense for the indefensible. Their wise old queen has been exposed as a hateful bigot who was supposed to be an "objective reporter" of the day's events.
Because a business is paying her for her words and she is therefore a representative of said company.
When her words damage their business, particularly when they are extreme, they have every right to dump her post-haste.
Free speech does not come at someone elses expense.
A society’s first line of defense is not the law but customs, traditions and moral values. These behavioral norms, mostly transmitted by example, word-of-mouth and religious teachings, represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error. They include important thou-shalt-nots such as shalt not murder, shalt not steal, shalt not lie and cheat, but they also include all those courtesies one might call ladylike and gentlemanly conduct.
Policemen and laws can never replace these restraints on personal conduct. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. This failure to fully transmit value norms to subsequent generations represents another failing of the greatest generation.
- Walter Williams, Nov. 21, 2007
The author obviously hasn't been paying attention since the Johnson Administration.
I’m Jewish, as far as I’m concerned she is free to say whatever she wants - at her house, out with friends, protesting in the street, wherever - as a private citizen.
When a person who has been seen at the White House of the United States of America virtually daily for decades, says those things - AT THE WHITE HOUSE - it is unacceptable.
It gives the impression across the world that the American people do not support Israel. That impression of course is a lie - but the fact that we apparently have a freakin sleeper agent as POTUS right now still does not mean that the American public should have to tolerate all the BS he’s basically promoting throughout the world.
There was a reason she felt comfortable saying what she did - and the reason is Obama. For me, it is not about free speech is about foreign policy.
I doubt there is a person in this country who would think it was okay if she had told Blacks to go back to Africa, or Canadians to go back to France... We need to have the balls to draw the line where it needs to be drawn and to stand up for the right for free speech when that is needed too.
I’m so tired of people in the press and in government SERVICE treating Americans like we are stupid - we are not stupid - and we are getting angrier by the day.
And after all, if it can happen to conservatives, it should also happen to progressives.
And I feel a nagging anxiety about a journalist’s losing her job over nothing more than a controversial statement.”
Nothing about freedom of speech shields us from the consequences of stupidity. Helen Thomas has not had her first amendment rights violated, She made a statement which people disagreed with and which illustrated perfectly the biases which have relfected upon her work for some time. This was simply a visible outworking of her vile tendencies.
I agree with the idea that the old hag Thomas should not have been fired/retired but I would have been sure to hang her nasty comments around her neck for the world to see. She is such a shrew!!