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In Defense of Helen Thomas
Renew America ^ | 9 June 2010 | Jamie Freeze

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 ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: helenthomas; thomas; troll
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1 posted on 07/07/2010 8:31:00 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
I rebutted this article here.
2 posted on 07/07/2010 8:32:00 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (Whoever disagrees with me at any point is a RINO)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

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.


3 posted on 07/07/2010 8:33:05 AM PDT by HushTX (quit whining)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

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.


4 posted on 07/07/2010 8:34:58 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Unfortunately, political correctness trumps freedom of speech in America. Conservatives have long complained that political correctness was destroying our First Amendment. Yet, conservatives were the first to call for Thomas's resignation. I don't know if it's just me, but I smell a little hypocrisy. Conservatives applaud Ann Coulter when she flippantly makes anti-Muslim comments (calling for the invasion of their country and conversion to Christianity) yet attack Helen Thomas for making anti-Semitic remarks. Boy, the smell of hypocrisy is getting stronger.

Of course, it all depends on whose ox is being gored..

5 posted on 07/07/2010 8:35:00 AM PDT by Riodacat (Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.")
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

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.


6 posted on 07/07/2010 8:35:29 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (leftism: uncurable mental detioration)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

“POOF. There went Thomas’s job.”

http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/heyho.wav


7 posted on 07/07/2010 8:40:06 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Just curious....did Jamie Freeze write a similar article for Don Imus?


8 posted on 07/07/2010 8:40:47 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (DonÂ’t accept freedom, DEMAND IT!!!)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

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.


9 posted on 07/07/2010 8:40:53 AM PDT by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Live by PC, die by PC.


10 posted on 07/07/2010 8:43:44 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
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.

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?

11 posted on 07/07/2010 8:44:48 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Abraham Lincoln: For when it happened too long ago to blame on George W. Bush)
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To: 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.

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.

12 posted on 07/07/2010 8:45:28 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (I wish our president loved the US military as much as he loves Paul McCartney.)
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To: Riodacat

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.


13 posted on 07/07/2010 8:45:59 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

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”.


14 posted on 07/07/2010 8:47:54 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Highly respected journalist ?

Helen Thomas journalistic integrity is to respectable journalism, as fart jokes are to humor


15 posted on 07/07/2010 8:47:54 AM PDT by daku
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

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.


16 posted on 07/07/2010 8:49:18 AM PDT by marron
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Trent Lott, pick up the white courtesy phone.


17 posted on 07/07/2010 8:50:18 AM PDT by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: kabumpo
No, it doesn’t have anything to do with whose ox is getting gored.

Sure as hell does.

18 posted on 07/07/2010 8:51:01 AM PDT by Riodacat (Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.")
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To: HushTX
Free speech does not mean free from consequence. One is free to say what one wishes, but must accept the consequences of such speech.

Ditto

19 posted on 07/07/2010 8:52:48 AM PDT by Charlespg
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Imus, Jimmy The Greek, Earl Butz, Rush on MNF . . . where were you then?


20 posted on 07/07/2010 8:53:10 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
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