Helen Thomas retires after Israel remarks

Crazy old bat

So when are Rush, Crazy Glenn Beck, Bill-O the Clown and every other screaming right wing idiot on Faux News and AM Hate Radio going to resign?

The members of the Right Wing Noise Machine say something that is offensive and repulsive to everyone in America every single day.

This is crap. The number of statements by from the Right Wing newsmodels and airheads and windbags and politicians, that condoned the torture, profiling, racism, and even murder of brown people--to say nothing about the continuing islamophobia--dwarfs the worst thing Thomas could have said in her 89 years.

Everyday we hear unAmerican, unpatriotic, bigotted, racist comments, personal attacks, lies, spin, and hate barfed up by the likes Rush Limpbaugh, Billy O'Reilly, Butthead Beck, Dick Mark Levin, Weinerman Savage, and Limpbaugh-lite, Sean Hannity. Some statements are traitorous and treasonous and certainly wouldn't be tolerated in any other country. In addition to the above, they cannot handle the fact that Obama occupies the White House.

I've always been attracted to Helen Thomas and other beautiful reporters like her. It's a shame that the only one left nowadays who really makes me sit up straight in my chair is Candy Crowley.

Everyday we hear unAmerican, unpatriotic, bigotted, racist comments, personal attacks, lies, spin, and hate barfed up by the likes Rush Limpbaugh, Billy O'Reilly, Butthead Beck, Dick Mark Levin, Weinerman Savage, and Limpbaugh-lite, Sean Hannity. Some statements are traitorous and treasonous and certainly wouldn't be tolerated in any other country. In addition to the above, they cannot handle the fact that Obama occupies the White House.

Posted by: Doug R. | June 7, 2010 3:51 PM

I don't think you realize how ironic you sound.... So- given your rant- you must spend an awful lot of time listening to "...Rush Limpbaugh, Billy O'Reilly, Butthead Beck, Dick Mark Levin, Weinerman Savage, and Limpbaugh-lite, Sean Hannity..." to allow you to hear so much bigotry and hatefulness- in order to hear something "every" day...perhaps if you listened less- their ratings would slip and you would not hear them anymore-- ?? ( just a thought)..
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To put Thomas's "solution" into context for you- when she said that Jews ought to go back to Poland, Germany and Russia - do you have any clue why they left those countries after WW2? Clearly you have no ability to defend her remark(s) ( I hope). Also-if the folks you cite above did make equally racist statements-there is no equivalence here. Thomas was supposed to be a member of the NEWS press- (which makes me laugh out loud -given the adoration this admin gets)all of the folks you have listed have shows that are self defined opinion shows
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BTW- when you say "...wouldn't be tolerated in any other country." -isn't this a good thing? Or does free speech frighten you so much that you would have our rights be dumbed down to some "other countries" standards?

My grandma always said, because she lived as long as she had (95 years), and went through as much as she did, she had a right to speak her own mind and/or be a cranky old lady no matter what anyone else thought about it.

You go Helen...you earned the right to speak your mind. That is what this country is founded upon. I hope someone does a documentary on this woman who opened many doors for others.

Posted by: lochnessmonster | June 7, 2010 5:41 PM
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That was a tactful way of saying that she's so old that her brain has gone soft and it's time to retire. I'll buy that.
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And following Helen's 'logic' each and every one of us should pack up and 'go back' to wherever our ancestors came from in Europe, Africa, Asia--even if they came 400 years ago.
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Uh oh... if you follow Helen's train of 'thought' even further, the Jews came to Europe from Israel so Israel is really where they belong.
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Sorry, Helen.

Helen has always been anti-Jewish. She broke the story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt.

I think she did the right thing to resign. If the misspoken ilk was said by a right- wing journalist... you can bet that she/he would have been fired and not given a chance to resign.
It is also very fitting that Ms. Thomas left today, June 7, a day after D-Day when we commemorate the end of WW ll.--- as well as, discovering the horror inflected by Adolf Hitler who must have felt sick realizing what he had done (gassed 6 million Jewish people) --- took his own life.

This old lady has been around far too long. If the Hearst newspapers had any class they would have fired her before she could "retire". Rumor has it that she was around when Moses accepted the Ten Commandments.

Clearly a bigot and anti Semite. Helen Thomas says "Get the hell out of Palestine." To an ethnic group that has been persecuted and been the victim of ethnic cleansing and anti-capitalism sentiments, much the same of what we see right now. Hate, hate, hate the banks. Hate rich people, get even. Redistribute the wealth.

There are posters here that follow those hateful sentiments.

There are always two side to a coin. Israel is the only pro-western country in that region. They will always be our friend. At the same time, she is just asking that the Palestinians are treated fairly. You can't have peace if both sides aren't willing to compromise. It is always the average Palestinian folks that suffer the most. On the other hand, the jihadist branch of the Palestians are not helping make their life easier either. They are stuck between two worlds: Israel and the Jihadist. Unfortuantely, in her frustration, it just didn't come out correctly.. .

Leggy, Marlon, Doug R.

The garbage you spew is no better then that you protest.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Live with it, before it's gone.

HmongRodneyKing - "At the same time, she is just asking that the Palestinians are treated fairly. "

If she had meant to say that, she is perfectly capable, but she did not say that.

Instead, she wants the Jews to get the hell out of Israel, or as she calls it, Palestine. She wants the Jews to "go back to Germany, go back to Poland".

Did she bother trying to ask what to do with the Germans and Poles who are living in places once occupied by Jewish communities? Does she want them forcibly removed? (and I am sure those people will gladly leave too - the Jews had no trouble in Europe over the last few hundred years. . . .)

Nor did she ever ask WHY EGYPT WAS BLOCKADING GAZA.

Nor did she ask why ISRAEL LET FOOD AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES ENTER GAZA.

Apparently, she was not bright enough to ask these questions, or she was willing to distort her reporting because she did not like the answers.

Funny too how not ONE of the liberal news organizations said a word about this for over a week, even though they had access to it. Is this because most liberals feel the same way?

At one time she was one of the best but it would seem age and maybe a little dementia has crept in. She started to become unhinged during the Clinton administration and I am surprised people put up with her for this long.

Helen Thomas had a great career as a journalist. But she is a prime example of not knowing when to call it quits and retire. She was really losing it the last few years and finally proved it with her recent remarks about Israel. Although she was partly correct that there has to be some sort of peaceful settlement in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians, her solutions for this serious problem were completely out of Left Field and off the wall.

"And following Helen's 'logic'... every one of us should pack up and 'go back' to wherever our ancestors came from in Europe, Africa..."

Except that Africans didn't "come" to the U.S. They were brutally shipped to the States against their will and forced to toil in bondage from sunrise to sunset on land they were never accused of illegally occupying.

Posted by: HmongRodneyKing | June 8, 2010 5:50 AM

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Your post is a nice effort to soft-peddle her quotes. Except what you are saying (e.g., Palestinians should be treated fairly) is a far cry from what she did (Jews, get the hell out). You seem to be trying to give her the benefit of the doubt here, but your spin and her words do not match.

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Posted by: depot jim | June 8, 2010 2:48 PM

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Jim, you also seem to be giving her the benefit of the doubt, chalking her comments up to a senior moment. Maybe that is what happened. But I am a little more cynical than you. I think if age was a factor, it was in her forgetting her politically correct filter for a moment and speaking her mind. Although not really an apples to apples comparison, I felt similarly when Mel Gibson had his anti-Semetic meltdown. Some people wanted to chalk that up to alcohol. I say the alcohol removed the filter.

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leggy, marlon lee, doug r., etc., your posts are idiotic. The old "someone else did it too" argument. Why Swamp posters find this line of thinking persuasive, I will never know. Remind me never to hire the three of you as my legal defense team. If I was on trial for robbing a bank, would your defense for me be that some other guy at some other time also robbed a bank? I'll remember to bring a tooth brush.

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I was hoping this blog would be entertaining in that someone would actually try to defend the substance of Thomas' comments. I know that other people feel as she does. They just know it is not politically correct to speak openly about it. I thought an anonymous blog might give people a forum to support Thomas' warped views. No takers so far. You know a statement is out of left field when bloggers won't even risk the credibility of their alias to defend it. John E., you have like 50 screen names. Couldn't you sacrifice one and come out in support of Thomas' views?

I wonder if Helen Thomas will pack her bags and head back to her parent's land of origin? - Lebanon

helen thomas was giving her own opinion. in america we are suppo0sed to be able to do so. Maybe journalist do not have this right but the rest of us do.

Posted by: Diane | June 8, 2010 4:52 PM
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Correct. And your point?

thomas

You are right. Once a reporter or journalist starts to give their opinion they are no longer considered to be a reporter or journalist. The meaning of journalist is the following:

The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.

That is why most mainstream media outlets are losing money because they no longer understand what it means to be a reporter or journalist. They inject their opinion too often and to what should be a fact based news report and no more than that. The problem with this old bag is that she has been injecting her opinion for way too long and nobody has called her out on. The following is the meaning of a reporter:

A person employed to gather and report news, as for a newspaper, wire service, or television station.

Her loaded questions ruled her out a long time ago as being a reporter. And the same goes for most reporters in mainstream media now days. The liberal bias is obvious when you compare questions asked by a reporter to a Democrat and a Republican. In most cases Democrats are handed softball questions where Republicans are asked loaded questions that cannot really be answered.

"Correct. And your point?"
Posted by: Just sayin'

It's rather obvious. Delve beneath Helen’s comments and you’ll realize why the two aren't analogous.