The sad farewell of Helen Thomas

[n2doc]

By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, June 8, 2010


snip:
Yet the White House press corps will be diminished without Helen front and center, and not only because she was in that job before the current president was born. She brought a ferocity to her questioning that has eluded too many in subsequent generations. At a time when others were getting cozy with sources, her crabby, unrelenting hostility was refreshing.

"When are you going to get out of Afghanistan?" she challenged President Obama two weeks ago. "Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse? And don't give us this Bushism, 'If we don't go there, they'll all come here.' "

Then there was her questioning -- heckling, really -- of press secretary Robert Gibbs: "What's the difference between your foreign policy and Bush's? . . . Why don't you know your position on Glass-Steagall? . . . What are you hiding? . . . Yes or no? . . . Why does the president have this audacity of hope for the health plan when it's so clear the perception from yesterday was he struck out?"

Think that was rough? Recall her questioning of President George W. Bush in 2006 after he finally ended a long boycott of Thomas questions. "Your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis," she began. "Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true."

Thomas kept up her harangue as Bush tried to answer, requiring him to plead "Hold on for a second" and "Excuse me, excuse me" and "Excuse me for a second."

Given that history of hostility, it's not surprising that one of the first to push Thomas out the door was Bush's former press secretary, Ari "Watch What They Say" Fleischer, who temporarily left his sports marketing business to hustle over to the Fox News set and demand Thomas's firing. The most recent recipient of Thomas's heckling, Gibbs, used the words "offensive and reprehensible" when asked Monday about the matter.

The rest of the article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060704184.html

America needs someone to stand up and hold the leadership's feet to the fire, now that she's gone.

[msongs]

1. war crimes and murder of 100K good, helen thomas' biases bad lol nt

[Tutankhamun]

7. The civilian death toll in Iraq is closer to 1 million.

[Ian David]

2. Just because she hates Jews does not mean she should be fired. Pat Buchannan still has a job.

The rest of her non-Jew-Related work has been exemplary.

[leftofcool]

4. Does she hate all Jews or just what Israel is doing to Gaza?

I hate Bibi with a passion but I certainly don't hate Jews.

[Ian David]

5. "Go back to Germany" is anti-Jewish, not anti-Israel.

And she had the opportunity to clarify her remarks in her "apology," which she did NOT do.

[jacksprat]

15. She is allowed to have her opinion.

Most nations condemned Israel's actions attacking the flotilla and killing people.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[jacksprat]

17. How sweet.

[Owl]

19. Though at the heart of her rant was a lot of truth.

[here_is_to_hope]

21. You have had the chance to be truthful...

which you will NOT do.
Tell AIPAC I said hi and to fuck off.

[harun]

11. Hope you are happy she quit. We'll see how well the soft ball pitcher they

put in her seat does. I can already hear the replacements questions:

"When I see pictures of the shiny rainbow oil I wonder why the fuss? Does Obama think they are as pretty as me?"

"Did Malia get the part in the school play?"

"With drone strikes having a 100% success rate, why do people speak out against them?"

"With the Iraqi people begging for the U.S. to stay and protect them, why is Obama considering a draw down on U.S. troops?"

"What did Obama think of the season finale of Lost?"

But the new reporter will consider Israel a "special" nation of "special" people. Who don't have to follow the rules and who are better than everyone else. So you'll be happy you got that old crow out of there for someone who worships you.

Good luck with that.

[jacksprat]

12. She hates Jews?

Sorry, I saw non of that in her comments, nor lifetime as a journalist.

[cascadiance]

13. So does Colbert hate Jews since he worked with her in that one skit? Get a life!

Direct your anger at those who murder people! Not someone who's reacting to that murder and rationalizations justifying it!

[Ian David]

14. Does that make ME an anti-semite for sending her flowers? n/t

[HEyHEY]

20. So, Ian, are people who say China should get out of tibet racists?

Do they hate Chinese people?

[Catherina]

3. Rec'd but still 0 n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

6. NOBODY will ask the quality of her questions.

Another loss for democracy by the diminution of one.

[Tutankhamun]

8. One of the final nails in the coffin of genuine, honest MSM reporting.

[Blue Owl]

9. The future of "journalism" is James O'Keefe and Glenn Beck

And they can go fuck themselves.

[liberation]

18. The irony of this situation is that she got "caught" by a total "gotcha" hatchet job

She should have known better, but maybe this is really the shape of things to come as "journalism" and I shudder at that thought.

[Johonny]

10. Just modern America where we build people up in status only to take them down

In the race for pure purity of celebrity character, any character flaw real or preconceived is enough to take you into a down cycle. Oddly the people most immune to this are those that gain fame by having low character to begin with. Those that fall the hardest are those we build up to impossible standards of ethics.