If the White House Press Corps could pressure Helen Thomas to resign, then they need to go after FOX

[wndycty]

Seriously, they felt Helen Thomas crossed a line and they applied a lot of the pressure the resulted in her resignation. Its time for them to single out FOX NEWS, they do have that power.

[Stoic]

1. I wish I could move to the universe you live in.

Or travel back in time 60 years ago when there was such a thing as journalistic standards and accountability.

That place doesn't exist anymore.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. Are you shitting me? Most of these newsmodels would take a job with Faux if they

were offered one tomorrow.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. and CNN fired Octavia Nasr, a very moderate if not conservative Arab American journalist after work

ing for CNN for 20 years because she admitted feeling saddened to hear of the death of prominent Lebanese Shiite Cleric, Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah - a figure who was considered a moderating influence in Lebanon. I guess that was crossing a line too. Although I can't imagine what line she crossed. Even Bill Clinton in 1994 sent condolences following the death of Kim Il Sung in North Korea.

So why is Fox News even allowed at White House press conferences given that promoting racism and bigotry and actively and transparently promoting an extremist agenda is undeniable?

But unlike journalist of the past that had some concept of professional ethics, we now have company people who are more of the mindset of PR staff who simply have no standards of professional journalist whatsoever.


see Glenn Greenwald's article, Octavia Nasr's firing and what The Liberal Media allows:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/08/media/index.html

[oberliner]

4. Nasr said (tweeted) that she respected Fadlallah a lot

After making the comment, she expressed regret, writing:

It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I'm sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah's life's work. That's not the case at all.

She also pointed out, about Fadlallah:

It is no secret that Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah hated with a vengeance the United States government and Israel. He regularly praised the terror attacks that killed Israeli citizens. And as recently as 2008, he said the numbers of Jews killed in the Holocaust were wildly inflated.

And she certainly made it clear that she regretted making that tweet.

I think firing her was certainly an overreaction, but I do agree with Nasr when she says that she should not have made that tweet.

I do, however, completely agree with your other point about the state of journalism today, especially with respect to Fox News.

[no limit]

5. Fadlallah was also the type of moderate that could reshape the Muslim world for the good

Israel kills innocent people all the time. Hell, they charge muslims with rape because they lie about their religion before sleeping with a jewish woman. Yet I never heard of anyone getting fired over support of Israel, have you?

[Douglas Carpenter]

6. As Glenn Greenwald pointed out in his column on salon. com

Most striking, the British Ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy, heaped praise on Fadlallah far more gushing than anything Nasr said. In a piece she entitled "The Passing of Decent Men," Ambassador Guy wrote that he was one of the people whom she enjoyed meeting most and with whom she was most impressed; that he was "a true man of religion, leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith"; that "Lebanon is a lesser place the day after his absence"; and that "the world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths."

And Nasr herself wrote a moving explanation after the controversy over her tweet erupted, explaining that the respect she expressed for Fadlallah had nothing to do with some of his uglier views about the justifiability of civilian attacks on Israel or Holocaust disparagement, but was rather driven by his important and virtuous call for greater rights and respect for Muslim women, his desire for greater religious tolerance in Muslim nations, and the fact that he "spread what many considered a more moderate voice of Shia Islam than what was coming out of Iran." She recounted the respect he showed her when she interviewed him 20 years ago. And she explained that "it was his commitment to Hezbollah's original mission -- resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanon -- that made him popular and respected among many Lebanese, not just people of his own sect." By all accounts, Fadlallah became particularly radicalized in his hostility toward the U.S. when the Reagan administration -- working in concert with Saudi Arabia -- attempted to assassinate him with a car bomb in Beirut, missed, and slaughtered 80 innocent civilians instead.

In other words, like many people involved in protracted and religiously-motivated violent conflicts, Fadlallah was a profoundly complex figure, with some legitimate grievances, some entrenched hatreds and ugly viewpoints, and a substantial capacity for good. Nasr was expressing a very mild and restrained form of sadness and respect for someone who had just died: sentiments shared in much stronger form by hundreds of millions of people in the Muslim and even Western world. The sentiment she expressed, while infuriating neocons, is widespread and completely unnotable for large parts of the world.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/08/media/index.html

[oberliner]

7. Ambassadors are not reporters

One would expect such remarks from an ambassador.

Reporters are (in theory) held to a different standard with respect to their public comments on such matters.

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. but for crying out loud.. first of all this was on twitter not in a newscast

secondly, imagine a journalist being fired or reprimanded for justifying war crimes by Israel or the U.S. for that matter. They do it all the time and they do it boldly and shamelessly.

Octavia Nasr was obviously not endorsing or justifying anything, she expressed sadness on Twitter after the death of a prominent and much revered Lebanese leader.

Again from Glenn Greenwald's piece on salon:

First, consider which viewpoints cause someone to be fired from The Liberal Media. Last month, Helen Thomas' 60-year career as a journalist ended when she expressed the exact view about Jews which numerous public figures have expressed (with no consequence or even controversy) about Palestinians. Just weeks ago, The Washington Post accepted the "resignation" of Dave Weigel because of scorn he heaped on right-wing figures such as Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh. CNN's Chief News Executive, Eason Jordan, was previously forced to resign after he provoked a right-wing fit of fury over comments he made about the numerous -- and obviously disturbing -- incidents where the U.S. military had injured or killed journalists in war zones. NBC fired Peter Arnett for criticizing the U.S. war plan on Iraqi television, which prompted accusations of Treason from the Right. MSNBC demoted and then fired its rising star Ashleigh Banfield after she criticized American media war coverage for adhering to the Fox model of glorifying U.S. wars; the same network fired its top-rated host, Phil Donahue, due to its fear of being perceived as anti-war; and its former reporter, Jessica Yellin, confessed that journalists were "under enormous pressure from corporate executives" to present the news in a pro-war and pro-Bush manner.

...

What makes Nasr's summary firing even more astonishing is that Nasr herself was an unremarkable journalist who rarely if ever provoked controversy, had no history of anti-Israel or pro-Terrorist sentiments, and blended perfectly into the American corporate media woodwork. Indeed, Middle East expert and neocon critic Nir Rosen ironically noted yesterday that -- as almost happened to Michael Steele -- "Octavia Nasr got fired for the one smart thing she ever said." And behold the July 4 message sent on Twitter by this subversive, America-hating, Terrorist-loving menace from whom CNN had to protect us all:

This was a banal and very cautious establishment journalist who survived and advanced at Time Warner, Inc. for 20 years by adhering to all the prevailing codes.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/08/media/index.html

[oberliner]

9. If a CNN reporter tweeted that they had a lot of respect for Meir Kahane, they would be fired

Fadlallah has praised attacks on innocent Jews similar to the attack on innocent Muslims carried out by Baruch Goldstein that were praised by Kahane.

If any American journalist tweeted that they had respect for Baruch Goldstein or for anyone who called him "heroic" (as Kahane did, and as Fadlallah did about those who carried out the Yeshiva massacre in 2008) they would be treated in a similar fashion.

Kahane and Fadlallah were terrorists who supported the killing of innocent people. A journalist who expresses a great deal of respect for either one would be treated similarly.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. Kahane was considered a marginal figure in Israel. A journalist who out and out supported

atrocities such as the attack on the Gaza flotilla or defended war crimes committed last year in their raids in the Gaza or praised the butcher of Beirut, Ariel Sharon as "a man of peace" would certainly not have to worry about a hint of criticism.

[oberliner]

12. Ariel Sharon was the Prime Minister of Israel, an ally of the United States

George W. Bush is certainly as guilty of committing war crimes as any Israel leader, yet no reporter would be fired for saying they respected him (or Tony Blair, or other leaders of US allies who are responsible for great numbers of civilian deaths).

As pointed out by Ms Nasr:

Fadlallah himself was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department.

[no limit]

13. I love how you ignore all the crimes of Israel. Can you please tell me why?

[oberliner]

19. What do the crimes of Israel have to do with Nasr's firing?

I certainly don't ignore them. How do they relate to Nasr's firing?

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Was it the WH press corps, or was it her employer, Hearst Newspapers?

[Political Tiger]

14. Except Helen Thomas actually did do something wrong.

And the WH didn't pressure her to resign since she was not an employee of the WH.

[Dr Fate]

16. How are her actions more wrong that what Hannity & FOX did?

Thomas basically stated a controversial and arguably ignorant opinion- FOX out right lied & presetned fake info.

[Political Tiger]

17. I didn't say they were "more" wrong than Hannity and Fox

In fact, I said absolutely nothing about Hannity or Fox.

My impression was that the OP was comparing Helen Thomas to Shirley Sherrod, and I responded accordingly so.

[Dr Fate]

18. My misunderstanfding- I thought you comparing Thomas to Fox News.

The OP said that if Thomas should be punished, then so should FOX.

[Dr Fate]

15. The WH and elected DEMS should also target FOX.

Everyone would rather split haris and make excuses as opposed to admitting that you might have a larger point- we do need to go after FOX news.

A better example might be Bush taking on Dan Rather & CBS. He won.