So Helen Thomas retired in “disgrace” after giving an opinion nobody should have been surprised by. When I initially saw the video my first thought was, “Wow! I bet nobody else has seen this yet…” Five pages into a “Helen Thomas” Google search later I was reminded yet again that the only time people I scoop are those living in the Arctic tundra (who have no access to the internet).
Anywho, as many of may have seen by now, I posted that because she happened to be voicing an opinion that many in mainstream media are sympathetic to, in all likelihood nothing would come of us and yet another liberal would go on saying crazy nonsense and not get punished for it. Well I’m a big enough man to admit when I am a victim of my own cynicism, so I humbly admit, I was wrong. Within 72 hours of that video going viral Helen Thomas was “resigned”. If you’re a liberal it’s a sad day for journalism and if you’re a conservative you are singing, “Ding dong the witch is dead.” Having said all that I’ve done some reflecting about this incident and here’s what I’ve come up with:
Despite my ardent and unwavering support for Israel, I’m not convinced Helen Thomas did anything wrong per se. What she said is wrong, in that the content is anti-semitic and outrageous but the fact that she said something provocative and outrageous is a reflection of modern journalism and the culture at large. If we’re being fair and intellectually honest, neither liberals nor conservatives or any other modern celebrity ever gets seriously punished for being controversial, provocative or outrageous. Oh sure some have gotten fired from a gig or two but then they either bounce back with a better gig or simply continue with whatever is their main bread. For the most part, said individuals either get rewarded or ignored; it’s like the old saying that even negative publicity is good publicity. Let’s look at some examples:
In early 2009 Nancy Pelosi repeatedly said, “Five hundred million people will lose their jobs each month until we have an economic package.” Last time I checked she’s still the Speaker of the House. Many in the country will even argue that despite outrageous statements like this, she’s very much in touch with reality.
Later that year, Sarah Palin uttered this on her Facebook page, “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” Meanwhile, Palin still enjoys relative mainstream popularity today among conservatives.
Here’s one that’s a real doosey. To a question about “Christian terrorists” blowing people up in America, Tavis Smiley stated, “Yes, Oh, Christians, every day, people walk into post offices, they walk into schools, that’s what Columbine is – I could do this all day long … There are so many more examples, Aryan, of Christians who do that than you could ever give me examples of Muslims who have done that [blow people up] inside this country, where you live and work.†To date this guy still has a job with PBS (your tax dollars at work) and I’m sure he will for the foreseeable future.
While I tend to agree with Rush Limbaugh, he too has said some things that were insane and yet he still has a the most successful AM radio show in modern history. Here’s one brilliant utterance from the mouth that roared, “God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama.” This was not one of his brighter or funnier comments.
Even President Obama says things that are insane and I’ll bet that barring any unforeseen calamity, he still will command a hefty lot of re-election votes. “I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
I could cite more but I think you all get the point. Outrageous statements and behavior seldom draw condemnation but rather applause and maybe even a prize. Imus once made remarks about “nappy-headed” female basketball players and eventually he got a better gig on satellite radio for more money. Howard Stern has made a career out of that sort of thing.
My point is that Helen Thomas was only behaving in a way that has been rewarded by society over and over again. We Americans love it when a celebrity goes nuts and says something that gets half of our knickers in a twist.
Now, if we as a society would like our reporters and professional talking heads to actually be conscientious about what they are saying and not immediately say the most outrageous thing that comes to their mind, then we have to stop voting with our dollars for the silliest of content. The “news” shows that garner the highest ratings are the ones with the most histrionic, shrieking and irresponsible opinions. When we as a society stop watching crap, then crap will stop flying out of the mouths of our celebrities (in theory). Until then, I say give Helen Thomas back her job and seat on Obama’s lap for her troubles.
I’ll be talking about this and more on my new show The Whiskey Rebellion June 8th at 8:00 PM eastern time. Feel free to call in and disagree Call-in Number: (646) 915-8862
12 users commented in " Afterthoughts on Helen Thomas’ “Resignation” "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe disgrace is the fact that the Jewish mafia has forced one of the most respected icons of journalism to resign over daring to stand up for an inconvenient truth. The Jewish settlements have destabilised the middle east and the Jewish political strategy, land grab and genocide of Palestineans is the real core issue that has led to the increase in terrorism. Good on her! Helen is a true hero and had the guts to stand up to the Jewish propaganda.
Our society has indeed accepted piles of outrageous statements from those in the limelight. The reason that this one is different is the sheer bigotry and cruelty of it.
All over the web I have seen people verbally abused for comparing this to someone saying that the descendants of former slaves should go back to Africa. I agree with the condemnation of the comparison because this country is the one where the worst treatment took place – not in Africa.
To suggest – whether intentionally or not – that a people should go back to where their families were butchered is at best in shocking bad taste. At worst (which I believe it was) it is one of the most racist statements I have heard in a very long time.
Helen Thomas got what she deserved – fired and disgraced – but what I fear is that the disgrace only came as lip service.
Ditto Nina. The UN in its great wisdom decides to give away a country. Now the conservatives are all aflutter – liberals don’t dare say a word ( are we for the killers or the killed – gosh what hard questions). Our chief blogger here has to start his remarks with a bow to the Jews ( or he will get his really soon and he knows it).
Thanks Helen for telling the best solution to the Middle East – the other more likely solution is for the Palestinians to be driven out – 1000s left to Egypt the other day. Sooner or later drinking sewage and going hungry does that to a population. Land some troops in Israel on the way to Afghanistan and solve the real problem.
the Israelis are very good at making up stuff, they are masters at it. For instance, their version of the conversation on the ship, the real one does not mention “going back to Auzwich”. I would be very careful of anything they tell you. I think Helen Thomas is quite right, Israel is out of control. Wake up America, Israel is feeding you lies!
YOU CAN BET THAT IF ONE PERSON IN A NEWS
CONFERENCE THAT WAS FROM FOX NEWS MADE A
COMMENT CLOSE TO WHAT HELEN SAID, THE
WACO LEFT WOULD BE ON IT 24 – 7
For both the muslim and Jewish faith: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6)
‘He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him’ (John 3:36).
I don’t see anything wrong with what Helen Thomas said. The uproar shows that she was speaking the truth. The Palestinians deserve better than what they’ve got and I wish our government had the courage to support them.
Nice double standard on the comments here. And the story itself is the warm-fuzzy, liberal, Sesame Street thinking that allowed Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to grow large enough to attack others. I doubt Austria or China/Korea would agree with this idiot “no fault” agenda. And have any of these commentators READ history? There is more out there than the blogs folks. The Arab world tried seven times to WIPE OUT Israel. Israel was the underdog and refused to be destroyed. You are apologizing and rooting for the folks that fire rockets and set bombs to kill innocents with a weak excuse that Arabs are the victims because they say so. If you are too weak minded to get past the propaganda then take a vacation to southwest Asia. They hate you because they are told to hate you. Nothing more complicated than that. We could all leave tomorrow and they would come here to destroy America, even liberals, because of who you are. It’s 1938 and liberal appeasers will get another half million better men than they killed before this is done.
I have only one thing to say, maybe two…..
Why she does not return HOME to Lebanon and joins HAMAS, she’s exactly like them and think like them.
@) Does she know that 6 millions jews were murdered in Germany and Poland,My whole family perish there, as far as l am concern HELEN THOMAS you can go to hell,it’ about time
Some Holocaust Jews did try to “go home” to Poland and Germany. When they tried to reclaim their property, they were killed. No government agency in those countries lifted a finger to help the Jews return to their shops, etc. and stood by while they were murdered! If the world wants the Palestinians to have the “right of return” to what they left behind, the Jews who fled for their lives should have the same right!
Zionism was not overwhelmingly popular with European Jews before the Second World War. It was most popular in Poland, where there was moderate freedom to allow it to spread and rabid anti-Semitism backed by the government and the Church to encourage it. It was least popular in Germany, where a large majority of the Jews would have considered themselves Germans first, Jews second if at all—as was the case for some Polish Jews, though not as many, given a shorter period of liberation from legal bigotry. Many more in both cases would simply say, ‘This is where I live, this is where my family lived.’
Some, unusually so for a European of any sort of the time, actually did care about the rights of people browner than they, and either wouldn’t participate in the Zionist programme or thought that the land were being purchased from its legitimate owners—not realising that rentier families in Damascus, Cairo, and Istanbul might have not seen the land in question in generations, whilst fedayeen worked it and thought it ‘theirs’*. Others didn’t give a jot or tittle for the Palestianian, or though him a generic ‘Arab’ at home anywhere else in the Arab lands, but it didn’t matter because they said, ‘I’m not going there, Germany is my home, I’ll stay here.’
As stated above, after the war some Jews tried to go home again, but this proved to be a very bad idea.
I get the feeling that many people have some thought that, as the end seems near, God or Superman is going to come swooping down to save the day—it’s a trope of much fiction, so it must strike a common chord in many—but that is not the case.
Jews know in our guts that no-one will care enough to do much for us when push comes to shove. This does not mean that everything that Israelis do to Palestinians is right or justified, but it makes them and some of their actions understandable—they feel that every threat must be dealt with using as much force is as available as soon as it becomes apparent. Where they err is in too-low standards for ‘apparent’, and forgetting that military force is only one type of force, and one that easily blows up in your face.
Smart Palestinians (a minority, because a minority in any group) also understand that this now holds true for them: very few people give a damn about them, no-one has tried to help them much in exile, and their suffering is noticed only to the extent that it is useful to others.
(I am suddenly reminded of some doughy, pasty, right-wing types who hated ‘Joo Yorkers’ until some of us got blown up—because they _love_ stomping on people, and this gave them a _great_ excuse.)
Billiard balls hit billiard balls, one stops moving and one is expelled…but there are walls for reflexion and re-reflexion, and the moving ball now has its own momentum.
A joke in it is that Helen Thomas looks like an anti-Semitic caricature of an old Jewish lady—then again, some comedians do _all_ old people as old Jews.
*Property sometimes _is_ theft, robbery backed by the threat of State violence, in no other way could such arrangements persist
Helen Thomas expressed HER OPINION.
Since when is it a crime to express one’s opinion. Wasn’t there something written by our forefathers on a piece of paper that stated “Freedom of Speech”.
As long as you are not criticizing Israel.
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