Posted on 07/07/2010 8:30:59 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Isn't it amazing how one fifteen-second-sound byte can bring a career to a grinding halt? I'm sure Helen Thomas is reflecting on that point even now. Gone are Helen Thomas's days of being a highly-respected news reporter. Now, her name is a byword for anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment. When asked her opinion of Israel, Thomas said, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [Palestinians] are occupied. And it's their land. It's not German, it's not Poland's." Then, when asked where the Jews living in Israel should go, she replied, "They could go home. Poland, Germany, and America, and everywhere else."
POOF. There went Thomas's job.
While I agree that Thomas's statement was inflammatory, insensitive, and just plain ignorant, I don't think she should have been forced to resign. After all, the freedom of speech doesn't come with the right to be comfortable. In other words, the fact that you're uncomfortable doesn't trump my free speech. Thomas made people uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean her speech should be punished....
(Excerpt) Read more at renewamerica.com ...
I dislike this argument.
Free speech does not mean free from consequence. One is free to say what one wishes, but must accept the consequences of such speech. In this case, the consequence is to be known for the inflammatory and anti-semitic commentary.
You don’t get to do what you want without the world responding.
Helen simply made the mistake of allowing what she REALLY believes to slip out!! Leftists can’t AFFORD that. Unless, of course, they’re in congress or the Whitey House.
Of course, it all depends on whose ox is being gored..
It’s very rare for a liberal to suffer any consequences for hateful words. However, normal people get fired for saying innocent words that are twisted into hate speech. Macaca.
I’m glad this hateful anti-American witch got fired. Normal people suffer worse consequences.
Just curious....did Jamie Freeze write a similar article for Don Imus?
She was not out of a job for the one statement.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
She has an extreme nasty liberal bias problem. It finally took her down. It took way too long, but it took her down.
It’s like saying a man gets life in prison for shaking down a passerby for his wallet under California’s Three Strikes law. No, he doesn’t. He gets life in prison for being a habitual criminal. He no doubt committed hundreds if not thousands of crimes before that one. You just get to a point.
Live by PC, die by PC.
It is a free country. Thomas was free not to resign. Her company was free to refuse to continue distributing her stories. We're free to condemn her for the hate-filled troll that she is. Jamie Freeze is free to defend her. Isn't it nice when everything works out as it should?
The "soundbite" was as indefensible as Robert Byrd's continued use of the n-word (with the excuse that "there are white n*****rs too").
I didn't see Helen Thomas as a "highly-respected news reporter". She was a bitter liberal hag. She was not respectful of President Bush and others as well.
Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite were formerly "respected" until their true personas were revealed.
A journalist can be a jerk personally and still a good journalist, but when a journalist distorts reality and even fabricates "evidence" out of whole cloth to turn a war or an election, and the public becomes aware of it, they are disgraced.
No, it doesn’t have anything to do with whose ox is getting gored. Coulter is a critic and commentator, Thomas was a REPORTER who is supposed to be neutral.
Good riddance to a disgusting (almost) human being.
Helen Thomas was a glittering jewel of colossal ignorance and a true illustration of the competency (or lack thereof) of our bottom of the SAT barrel “journalists”.
Highly respected journalist ?
Helen Thomas journalistic integrity is to respectable journalism, as fart jokes are to humor
Just keep in mind that her ideological enemies didn’t fire her. Her friends fired her.
Good to keep in mind from time to time.
The Hollywood blacklists? Hollywood blacklisting their pals.
Trent Lott, pick up the white courtesy phone.
Sure as hell does.
Ditto
Imus, Jimmy The Greek, Earl Butz, Rush on MNF . . . where were you then?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.