Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Helen Thomas Pays for Crossing a Line Others Trample
By now you’ve heard: pioneering Washington journalist Helen Thomas has, thanks to a viral video interview, been pilloried for offensive comments about Israel and ousted from the press corps’ inner sanctum. Her words were definitely incendiary—Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Europe and America. But the reaction suggests that the Rabbilive ambush was just a catalyst for a gathering storm of political enmity. She was after all, one of the few hard-nosed reporters (and women) in the briefing room who ruthlessly challenged the White House on foreign policy issues.
To George W. Bush’s former press secretary Ari Fleischer, the comments were tantamount to a call for genocide: “She is advocating religious cleansing,” he told Huffington Post. “How can Hearst stand by her? If a journalist, or a columnist, said the same thing about blacks or Hispanics, they would already have lost their jobs.”
Getting fired for bigoted words? Somehow that fate has not befallen the cabal of right-wing bloviators who have literally built their careers pushing the propaganda war against Latinos, other people of color, gay people, liberals and anyone else they disagree with. They’re not journalists in the formal sense, but their frothing tirades, word-for-word, arguably wield more influence over the corporate news cycle. In contrast to Thomas-gate, though, Limbaugh and friends don’t need to be ambushed and exposed by rogue YouTube muckrakers. They’ve spewed their venom to millions daily on television and radio, backed by advertisers, media executives and an audience that happily blinds itself to political hypocrisy.
At HuffPo, some cooler heads have spoken in Thomas's defense while criticizing her remarks, noting a double standard in how Americans talk about who should “get the hell out.” On moral relativism, Paul Jay of Real News argues:
The obvious comparison is asking all European Americans to "get the hell out", and leave the land to its rightful owners, Native Americans. One could argue Mexican Americans might have an argument to stay in certain parts of the country.The European migration to America isn't such a stretch if one thinks about it. Colonialism makes use of people fleeing religious persecution to populate their new possession . . .
At any rate, we all know what's going on here. The hyper-pro-Israel lobby, in both parties, hasn't much liked the fact that Helen Thomas dares to speak up and question that most sacred of topics, and right from the front row of the White House Press Gallery.
James Zogby of the Arab American Institute puts Thomas's comments in perspective and calls out the right-wingers, embodied in the character assassination of Ari Fleischer, for its far more virulent rhetoric against people of color, gays, and, oops, yes, Jews:
Where was their indignation when Rush Limbaugh was making disgraceful and insulting comments about African Americans, gays, Muslims, and women and then was hosted and toasted at the White House? And did they speak out when Pat Robertson was making bizarre pronouncements connecting the devastation of Katrina or Ariel Sharon's stroke with God's justice? If I thought they understood shame, I would advise them to feel some.
When Dobbs, Beck and company have likened immigration to an illegal invasion of America's god-given dominion, they're just brandishing their patriotism, right? As opposed to the misguided journalists who dare question an actual occupation, perpetuated by the U.S., in another part of the world. Granted, it's hard to tell who's blaming who for what sometimes, as right-wingers tend to employ the same terminology when debating immigration and America's Muslim and Arab adversaries: invaders, terrorists, conquerors, and the occasional fascism reference.
Language is a funny thing. With all her experience in the White House press corps, Thomas should have known what words are off limits. There are some lines you just can't cross in the media... unless you're the one who gets to write the rules.
- Posted in
152 Comments so far
Show AllNearly ninety-year old Journalist Helen Thomas has taken a lot of heat for daring to address the fact that any Jew without any historical connection to Israel is encouraged to settle-as in colonize-upon legally owned Palestinian land.
I learned about, Aliyah, which means ‘going up,’ during my first of seven trips to Israel and occupied Palestine in June 2005 from an American Jewess who had taken the deal and she informed me:
"I get fifteen hundred shekels or about thirty-six hundred dollars a year in increments to help with my expenses. I can apply for unemployment benefits after seven months, as long as I look for a job. I just completed Ulpan, which was five hundred hours of Hebrew language immersion studies that took five months, five hours a day, for five weeks. I get subsidized rent and just moved out of the Absorption Center Projects. All the new immigrants get room, utilities, and three meals a day for the first five months in Israel. We also receive free medical care and all the doctors here are dedicated. We can go to the university with 100 percent of the tuition paid by the government. College is much cheaper here; it’s about three thousand to four thousand dollars a year. Until I am thirty years old, I can receive up to three years of education for my master’s degree."
On February 9, 2009, Journalist Helen Thomas, asked President Obama about Middle Eastern states with nukes.
Obama blew her off stating he didn’t want "to speculate" and her 'colleagues' remained mute, but the US State Department has published reams of material about President Kennedy's concern about the Israeli bomb!
In 2005, Mordechai Vanunu, the Whistle Blower of Israel's WMD Program told me:
"President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection.
"When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.
"Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year."
Learn more @ http://wearewideawake.org/
June 8, 2010: "Dear Helen Thomas with a PS to all her 'Colleagues' and Every American" and through the link to THE VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010!
Eileen:
Of course that nice Jewish lady gets all those perks--WE are paying for them!!!
Just like the nice jewish american lady that got her eye blasted out last week in the West Bank by the IDF. THAT is the perk you/we are paying for.
The Aliya is what Jewish organizations pay for.
rita
"Jewess..."
Is it OK to use this word? Isn't it a slur like the word "Nigress"?
No, Sabo, it isn't a slur. It is sort of a throwback to the middle ages. But who knows.....
The only time i heard it said was by an exiled Palestinian man who lives in Beirut and was referencing yours truly a few years ago, when posting my anti zionist/pro nonviolent resistence correspondence, unbeknownst to me.
I only found out when i started to get fan mail from people i'd never heard of....
"No, Sabo, it isn't a slur."
Thanks, then I'll start calling Naomi Klein a "good-looking, anti-capitalist Jewess." And Amy Goodman: "the best news-reporting Jewess out there"
The word "Jewess" adds a touch of femininity to talks about media concentration.
Hey there, Eileen....."Jewess"?
You are sounding so......."Ivanhoe" ;-)
I wished you'd never posted about 'Aliyah'. Makes me sick. And to think millions are out of work in the US, kids are having trouble paying for college, and so on. Just makes me sick.
"Aliyah"? Now there's something thats worth fighting for! (heh-heh!)
Boy, have we been snookered! My god, its so bad its funny!
Helen Thomas is just the most visible victim of a concentrated effort to silence public protest and free speech.
This is little different than the right wing backed ambush of of ACORN. I think reading this article : ( http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp06082010.html ) will help shed some more light on the subject.
LOL, two amateur kids with a camera
This sick society condemns anyone who dares to be a truth-teller, and Helen Thomas's whole life has been based on truth. It is easy to understand her frustration with Israel, I have been sickened by their repeated assaults on Palestinians and anyone else who threatens their dominance. Who among us has never spoken out in anger, the words pouring forth in spite of ourselves? It is an all too human characteristic. Helen Thomas has more courage and deserves more honor, then the rest of the White House Correspondents Assn. put together, and I salute her many years of service to the American people! As for the WHCA, they are circling around her empty front-row seat, like a bunch of vultures. Worse than vultures actually, vultures at least, have integrity.
A-men.
A quick google search produced these little right wing quotes from Rush Lintballs. Rush still has his job, and is still getting paid quite nicely for spewing this vile.
[To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
“We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
"You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed."
"I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."
Rush Linbaugh on the middle east, (which i assume includes Israel): "Fine, just blow the place up. Just let these natural forces take place over there instead of trying to stop them,"
Beck, Hannity and Palin are working hard to match Rush's indignations so they too can be pulling down $40 million per year plus speaking fees and publishing royalties.
Gee am wondering who forces all those people to pay to see them?
...and they are all darlings of the MSM corporate suits.
Beck, Maddow, Maher Rush, all of 'em – Cash Cows!
Wonder what the reaction would have been to them; had they a front row seat in the WH?
This is a prime example of the old bait and switch shell game tactic. Focus upon the words of Ms. Thomas while basically ignoring the fact that at least nine peace activists were murdered by the Israelis in international waters. Do not mention that one of those killed was an American who was shot four times in the head. How many of Ms. Thomas's colleagues have stood up for her? It appears that very, very few of them have done that and especially those who work on the television news and talk shows such as that [alleged] liberal Keith Olbermann who gallantly said on his program that if Ms. Thomas had not apologized [for what, daring to tell the truth?] he would have placed her on his Worst Person List.
The silence coming from America's supposed liberal community about what has been done to Helen Thomas has indeed been deafening as well as loathsome.
It's actually quite telling -- whether liberal or conservative, they are all part of the elite.
I think we give them way too much credit by calling them "elite". There's nothing elite about 99.9% of 'em.
Helen made one stupid remark about where to relocate Jews, apologized, but left on her own. She's going to be 90 anyway so she can leave. There are plenty of nice young sexy ladies needing a job and one of them can take her place.
Israel is a sacred cow in both parties, we have allowed them this kind of power because they are us. (our gov. power structure) Playing good cop bad cop with each other should not fool us. All the power is on one side of this issue so why wouldn't the xenophobic, misogynist,corporate gang on the right be given a free pass..they carry the water for our whole system.
Richard cohen had a collumn in which he describes Poland's hostility towards Jews before, during and after WWII. While it is true that Poland did commit atrocities against Jews after WWII, this doesn't justify Israel's repeated atrocities against Palestinians. While I am a sever critic of Iran's president, I do agree with his premise that since Nazi Germany killed > 6 million Jews in the holocaust, a piece of Germany should have been used to create a country for Jewish refugees. Since Palestinians had nothing to do with the holocaust, they shouldn't be made to pay for it.
This is ridiculous! Whatever H Thomas' feelings may be, it is about time that Israel or whoever stop acting like the years 1941-45 were the only holocaust in human history. It wasn't the first, wasn't the worst--the only difference was cameras. I think that Poland and Germany are safe now--over 60 years. Historical memory is NO excuse for heinous behavior. If Rwandans and S. Africans can return to the sites of their genocide, then so can EVERYBODY ELSE.
Although Thomas is old enough to have known about the initial ethnic cleansing of Palestine first hand.
Helen's departure rather draws the curtain on a long-running charade...
for years, I have felt that the others in the room all had their tongues in their cheeks while Helen spoke, as if in total agreement that she was the only one in the room unaware of her own ineffective, albeit courageous, position...of her tolerated role as 'integrity', lending legitimacy to farce...
the club of corruption and complicity grew around her as her time wore on, she so close as to be either unseeing, or without option...
where else to question the president? not her fault the answers became supported lies...supported to the point of insulation from her intellectual challenges, as there are no longer processes in place to check power, and countering messages flood the media, drowning out her own individual efforts...
even if people agree with her questions, the answers roll forth, an eagle against a blue curtain, amidst a cloud of bullets and bombs, a barrage of ballots, a pounding of a gavel, and the deal is done, ethics and legalities left far behind, panting in the dust...
well done...long and valiant effort against a powerful headwind...
take a rest, girl...
Sioux Rose
Well-spoken, DUBET. Thanks for this sensitive post.
Aye, dubet ...
Thomas had become an anachronism in the "press (sic) corps", the ant at a picnic of stenographers.
It is unfortunate, however, that she supplied the ammunition to her own firing squad.
I have a feeling Helen will have the last word – and laugh.
She ain't dead yet.
dubet, very well said.
"America's Muslim and Arab adversaries"
Since the USA doesn't border any Arab or Muslim nations, these so-called enemies of America are only "adversaries" of the United States in the same sense that the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico is an "adversary" of the United States.
Helen spoke truth. She showed up the cowardly flacks around her in the news conferences. They were laying for her to "go to far". Truth has few friends in this country. Our national motto is "anything but the truth". Our lying major media adhere scrupulously to this principle.
The WHCA is nothing but a fawning collection of ass kissers and bootlickers. Helen Thomas was the lone exception. There is no longer any reason to watch the dog and pony shows which Presidential news conferences have become.
I heard a woman being interviewed on NPR while driving yesterday. She is the NPR ombudsman and teaches journalism (i think) at George Washington University.
It was very hard to take. She said that Helen Thomas made the WH press corp very uncomfortable for many years. And believe me, she didn't say it as though that were a positive.
It sounded like it was a relief to be rid of her because she was such an embarrassment to the obedient press corp drones.
Visiting Professor,
I have been aware of the pandering as well. The station i tune into is WHYY in Philadelphia, while driving. I don't recall the stats on this, however they have had volumes of generals and military 'analysts' being interviewed over the past ten years, really.
Oh, yes. I almost had a car accident attempting to call one of the call-in shows when the latest, illustrious professorial addition to good old Berkeley's law school was out promoting his book last month. He was allowed to defend torture! I don't think anyone took him on.....The calls were mostly from criminal and tort lawyers who wanted to discuss the finer points of ......Actually, i was too incensed to pay attention to the discourse. But you'd never know they were speaking with a sociopath. That is for certain.
rita
Afraid of losing her funding, she loses her credibility.
The media gang up on Helen Thomas,in contrast to the propaganda campaign around the flotilla attack is as depraved as things get in American politics, but also has forced the pro-Israeli media to show its hand. Unfortunately, people seem not to either care or be able to critically discern the truth to withstand the barrage of sophisticated propaganda from the Israeli side.
There is also a pattern here amongst so-called liberals in the US. Notice how Liberal Democrats only get play if they are also in the same breath rabidly pro-Israel. During the health care debate, we had the high profile role of Anthony Weiner and Alan Grayson, both for single payer but also pro-Israel. On the other hand, Kucinich got eaten alive by Democratic partisans for his position, but I would argue that the roots of that animosity stemmed from his anti-war, and more importantly, his criticism of Israel. The same goes in spades for McKinney who received both the zionist and white supremacist treatment. Indeed, much of the animosity towards Rand Paul is not for his libertarian views which are not too dissimilar to a lot of Republicans, but because he deviates from the Republican neo-con consensus and that of course, his father is Ron Paul.
The same is true of liberal personalities like Keith Olbermann who know that they can say whatever they want on the air as long as they fall in line with Israel. This supreme taboo is amazing really when you think it should otherwise have nothing to do with the US, being about a foreign country.
Good riddance to that anti-Semite unpatriotic president bashing varmit !
SUPPORT THE EMPIRE SEND YOUR KIDS NOT MINE
Glenn Beck still has his job.
Hello 13 year old.
You are obviously lost. This isn't a right wing site.
Chill. EM's kidding.
Seems to me that Ms Thomas' sin was suggestion that the Eastern Europeans who have run Israel, and are running Israel, are not descended from anyone who was running around in the Middle East a couple of millenia ago.
It was not a stupid remark that Helen made, actually it
showed just how much more knowledge she has then the rest of
the press corp. , as a matter of fact she has forgot more
than all of them have ever known put all together. here is why.
Many have posted how the U.S. is hostage to Isreal, this is
laughable. Isreal was created after WWII in order to secure
a foothold in the Middle East both statregic and military so
that U.S. and Briton could have easy access to Middle East
easy access oil reserves. That is what Isreal serves.
As soon as the resources run out in the Middle East , the
U.S. will drop Isreal like a hot potato.e....
Not only that , the rich Jewish bankers and investors on
Wall Street will also drop Isreal like a hot potato.e , as
will the Jewish lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
They will not care how many innocent jews will be hung on
posts to die in the desert, they will just get their rich
buddies out of harms way and let history take its toll.
That is the same thing that is going on with Iran right now,
Isreal is acting in the U.S. interests with their hostilities
towards Iran and a possible, very probable first strike.
The U.S. will use this in order to gain access once again to
Iranian oil fields.
It is in ALL concerned interests to have a one state solution
now before the oil dries up because the innocent jews will
be left there hung out to dry.
Helen Tomas , as usual, is right.
Since recorded history, the oligarchs have turned economic
feuds into religious divides in order to gain public support
for aggressive actions, nothing has changed, Helen knows this.
It's about oil. It's about energy. It's about money.
The Middle East has it, American oligarchs want it.
It's about politics. How can the United Kingdom and the United States legitimately give land to a particular group of people. It's Pax Americana.
It's also very difficult for the Palestinians, but apparently that's a thought the oligarchs and the MSM do not want us to entertain.
Sioux Rose
JUSTICE ARCS: I view you as a genius, someone who has developed both right and left hemispheres of his brain. And while I do not mean to diminish the interesting theory you've put forth, I would like to add something from the astro-logos that also may help explain how Helen felt. I, too, feel a growing short fuse lately. Several of my friends have related the same thing. I think many of us are experiencing an overload to the "normal" setting on our "outrage meters."
Between the senseless most recent violence of Israel, the devastating condition still confronting those in Haiti, the U.S. not altering its make-war course, the stock market (along with our real economy) in the toilet, and our Gulf bleeding oil... these travesties are felt both on tangential as well as visceral levels, and the net effect gets to us.
Uranus was in the suffer-in-silence, martyrlike sign of Pisces for the past 7 years. This sign is resonant with the Age that humanity is departing from. Its theses centered around justice in the afterlife, and keeping the pack essentially quiet, accepting of their fate(s) in this one.
Uranus just entered the fiery Mars-rules sign of Aries, and Aries, the inception of fire, has NO patience. Helen Thomas is a Leo, as is Tipper Gore with a brand new status announced in synch with this astrological shift on the great cosmic dial. The nature of fire is to BE what it is without any forethought. It is impulsive and fiery by nature! The earth signs may take their time composing their various responses, but that is a very difficult thing for the fiery nature.
Jupiter (which tends to enhance or increase) and Uranus BOTH entered Aries in the past 2 weeks. Thus the pair incite hairtrigger actions and rseponses. One has an orbit of 12 years and the other 84. I predicted IN THIS FORUM that new types of violence would emerge, some of it springing forth in unconventional or unforeseen manners. We can expect a lot more of this type of thing in coming weeks, with August likely presenting the climax.
Helen was brave, and has always animated the courage of the lion. Her framing of words may have been a bit intense, but so are the conditions we are expected to take as normal. NOTHING is normal about our times! Chaos, corruption, and depravity are breaking out all over... those who show calm may be the natural little Eichmanns. To be human is to experience emotions, and with all the unjust, disorienting, and horrific decisions passing for business as usual, those emotions are not going to be easily put back into Pandora's Box. HOPE has failed us in the form of a deceitful figurehead in the nation that MIGHT have led the world towards genuine solutions to the many and growing problems that ail us.
Aries is also the sign of anger. Show me a person who isn't feeling any in the face of so much injustice and I'll show you someone ingesting the antidepressants which are being used to chemically manage a population that KNOWS things are out of balance, or otherwise persons who use street drugs/alcohol to quell the inner demons. RARE is the monk or saint who can endure all that is underway without feeling the need to emote or explode.
Sioux, you are an astrologer's astrologer.
rita