Any Thoughts Re: Helen Thomas Retiring in the Wake of Anti-Israel Remarks? (393 hits)
To many in Washington, two sets of rules seemed to apply for journalists covering the president: those for regular White House correspondents, and those for Helen Thomas.
To every president since John F. Kennedy, Ms. Thomas, 89, was known for posing questions in the kind of tough and provocative manner that could make press secretaries gasp and her colleagues cringe.
And it appears that her tart tongue may have finally ended her career. Ms. Thomas said on Monday that she was retiring, effective immediately, after an uproar over her recent remarks that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go home to “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”
As the furor over her comments went viral...
Helen Thomas announced on Monday that she was retiring, moments after the White House Correspondents Association said it was considering stripping her of her front-row press room seat.
The 89-year-old “dean of the White House press corps” had caused an uproar after making remarks in May suggesting that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to Germany and Poland “or wherever they came from.”
Ms. Thomas, a columnist for Hearst Newspapers who has frequently been critical of Israel, had apologized for the comments. She made them to a rabbi who interviewed her on videotape outside the White House during a celebration of Jewish heritage in May.
The decision to retire, effective immediately, was announced by Hearst Newspapers, which syndicates her column. Ms. Thomas will turn 90 on Aug. 4.
The board of the correspondents association had just met to consider how to respond to her contentious remarks, and had issued this statement:
Earlier on Monday, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, condemned the remarks made by Ms. Thomas.
Mr. Gibbs said he had not spoken directly with the president about it. But, he added: “Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. She should and has apologized. Obviously those remarks do not reflect, certainly, the opinion of I assume most of the people in here, and certainly not of the administration.”
“Cranky was her modus operandi. And it worked,” said Charles Bierbauer, who was CNN’s White House correspondent for nine years and is now the dean of the college of mass communications and information studies at the University of South Carolina.
Ms. Thomas was also known for her stubbornness. Mr. Bierbauer recalled a conversation he had with her when he left the White House beat in 1993.
“I said to her, ‘How long are you going to stay?’ And she said, ‘Until they take me out feet first.’ ”
Personally I'm glad Ms. Thomas left the White House. She was too anti-Semitic for me
Tuesday, June 8th 2010 at 3:36PM
Siebra Muhammad
I will say that clearly Ms. Thomas crossed the line big time when she made the statement that the Israeli people should go back to Poland, Germany, or wherever they came from. To me that is where she missed it and ultimately ended her career as a long time senior press lady to the White House.
I think she (and other White House journalists) have made comments that can be perceived as offensive before. Someone wanted her out and blew a cover. This story did not have to run. After years in the corporate world and military, when a story is uncovered, it's not because it's the first time the event happened. At times it's an indicator that someone with a bit of influence has "had enough."
Denise Turney Author - Long Walk Up Off The Shelf Radio www.chistell.com Wednesday, June 9th 2010 at 5:23PM
Denise Turney
Not mention you was making those statments to a Jewish Rabbi... opps...
Wednesday, June 9th 2010 at 6:24PM
Jen Fad
From Dearborn, Michigan
A great American community that has produced many Great Americans. She has talked with Every USA President, everyIsraeli and many World Leaders about Every Issue Since JFK for 50 Years.
As a Palestinian she knows this story better than Anyone, from an American Perspective.
Ok now that you make that point, I can appreciate that view or vantage point... I guess her response was more passionate than anything.
Wednesday, June 9th 2010 at 10:48PM
Jen Fad
She is about 100 years old,
I would love her, more, if it were a passionate response but I am going to say it is the Most Scholastic Historical response by an American with the Most Knowledge of this Semitic Confusion, Semitic Assault and Semitic Genocide against her direct Palestinian family, the Family of Adaam and the American Principle of Democracy.
if it were solely passionate,
I might want to marry her--what a passionate courageous and scholarly Woman.
She sure looks like she's about 100 yrs old -- Ha! I wish that Israel would just withdraw from that region, but I don't think that would solve the problem either. I think many would just rather have them just be removed from the face of the Earth and I really think that's what most Middle Easterners and Arabs would rather see happen to the Jewish people and to the Israel. It's a sad situation with no end or solution in sight, eh.
Thursday, June 10th 2010 at 6:37PM
Jen Fad
As a professional journalist, she, of all people, should have the media savvy to know the effect of her words BEFORE she says them.
Journalists do have their opinions and they are entitled to express them. But unless they are pandering to a partisan audience, she should have known the result she got. It was no surprise.
yes rich, but she is 89-100 years old -- let her give some Professional/Historical commentary to complete her journalistic career---
jenFad--the paganeuropeanChristians wanted to wipe them off the face of the Earth with the gassing of 5.89 Million of them in the 20th Century and 2.63 Million of them cut up and tortured in the 12-13th Century.
Arabs are jewish, christian and muslim and they have never before 1948 even thought about exterminating their family and neighbors.
the paganChristians wanted to do the final act by making them go to a land that was not theirs, and then the paganChristians armed the egyptian, jordanian, lebanese and syrian colonized Dictatorships to do their dirty deeds.
Helen is correct, I would welcome the family of Golda Meir back to their Ancestral Home in Wisconsin---
steve would welcome the family of Netanyahu back to the their estate in Philadelphia.
and my uncle, aunts and cousins would welcome the ehud baraka family back to kampLindfort, northern germany-poland border area.
that is a solution as outlined by Helen Thomas
-but paganAmericanChristian evangelists believe that they need the jews and muslims fighting themselves -- per the book of revelations--so that theirJesus will come and convert the jews and muslims or slay them; and bring peace.
I wished that Ms. Helen would have made statements that would have been more telling of the true struggle of the Palestinian people, but I suppose being who she has always been --- blunt and straight to the point --- Ms. Thomas decided to just "cut to the chase", eh! It's really a shame on her part because a woman with her journalistic experience and personal background could have really shed a lot of light on the other side of the story that we rarely get to here in the American media.
@ Brother Rob, I suppose the entire conflict would end if the Jewish people did leave that region and go elsewhere, but many Jewish people believe that Israel is their real home.
As for PaganAmericanChristian evangelists, you are right on with their beliefs. Many are giving money to Zionist causes to build Jewish settlements and to help Jewish people go to Israel which isn't making the situation better in the Middle East, but rather worse and worse by the day.
I really must admit that I don't understand the whole thing except it’s a misunderstanding between two brothers and their descendents--- a big family feud. Does either side even know what the original feud was about?
Musa came down from The Mountain, with The Creators' Commandments--
1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, and slavery; Do not have any other gods before me. 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
and some bani Israeel, who had just seen the Sea Open, wanted a GoldenCalf as Illah(hebrew transliteration for god)
they say that the children of bani Israeel wandered for 40 years in the wilderness---40 years to get a couple hundred miles?---
these nonBelievers of the Commandments of Musa, left Musa, took stolen pharonic Gold and settled in the wilderness with the pagans of Roma, Venice, Paris, Berlin, London, Bern, Brussels, etc. and ruled paganThought and Finances.
bani Israeel nonBelievers have a conflict with bani Israeel Believers of Musa and IsaIbnMaryam; He would not have had to tell the rabbi, "stop charging interest" and Believe.
If it were bani Israeel Believers of Musa in Israel today, henry kissinger would not eat pork, netanyahu would pray, and golda meir would have dressed like Sara.................they are bani Israeel 40 year wanderers with golden calf.
the palestinian bani Israeel, and the palestinian Muslims are the Believers of the Law of Musa.
sorry, but you asked what was it really, do they remember, Yes 2 Billion Muslim Believers remember.
Tuesday, June 15th 2010 at 12:48PM
robert powell
