Is David Nesenoff the new James O'Keefe? Thomas got ACORNed.

I watched the sharply-edited video of Helen Thomas being circulated in the news, complete with music and text telling us what to think about what she said. It reminded me a little too much of the ACORN videos.

There's no excuse for what Thomas said and I'm glad she apologized. Yet, there are parallels that lead me to believe she's being subjected to a coordinated hit job, just like ACORN was.

When can we see the video of the full interview and all the questions she was asked? It was obviously not a formal interview or speech, but rather she was approached on the street. How long did he pester her before catching something incriminating? Did she know who was interviewing her? What else did she say about the issue? One article claims he will post the full video, but what's taking him so long? It didn't take him any time at all to post his appearances on Fox News.

Why is the person who shot the video promoted so heavily on Fox News? What are his connections to the conservative movement? Who funds his web operation?

I'd like to know why the media just repeats half a sentence of her comment that perpetuates the ugliest spin of David Nesenoff.

I'm sick of being manipulated by the conservative media's saboteurs and their lackeys in the corporate press. Thomas said something horribly offensive and maybe its time for her to retire anyway.
But I want to hear it acknowledged that this was a hit job done to take someone out of the public debate. I want to know about who did it and why.

At some point we have to learn to recognize it. I'm not equating Thomas' comment with ACORN, if that's what you're implying.

Helen Thomas's firing is nobody's fault but Helen Thomas's.

Even if somebody gave her some rope, she hanged herself.

And Van Jones. They could have handled some things better even though they didn't break any laws.
Thomas was singled out as the next victim of the latest McCarthy witch hunt. It will keep happening as long as we let it.

if saying something arguably racist means you have to step off the stage, then the GOP can't survive.

You can say racist things and claim you have a big tent.

You can attack gay marriage while maintaining a "wide stance" in the men's room.

You can claim "family values" while raping your children.

You can howl about the deficit while awarding your corporate cronies with no-bid contracts.

et cetera ad infinitum

She asks too many questions about topics the right wants to hush up (and a good portion of the center too). They just want to make sure the left gets egg of their face defending her in the process.

Besides, they're "just kidding"

on that flotilla.

After all, Nesenoff is a film producer as much as a rabbi: http://www.insidefilm.com/sundance98.html

http://www.rabbilive.com/RabbiLIVE/Home.html

It recalls for me the Bush Administration paying columnists to tout the administration policies.

needs so many days to post the full video. Just post it.

The learning curve isn't that sharp for those who are Paying Attention!

:nuke:

:eyes:

He is a Rabbi and documentary film maker and has a website rabbilive.com. I have not explored it yet to judge his work. Could Helen have been "set up"? Maybe. The first question wrt "Israel" was almost-certain to get a response that Israel should leave "occupied Palistine" -- West Bank, etc.

While she was still answering about occupation, he quickly asked about where the "Jews" would go? I doubt she caught the switch from "Israel" to "Jews" in the second question.

Was that planned in hopes of a gotcha moment for Helen and others? Don't know.

The video seems to have been manipulated to make Helen look really bad. The ultra-closeup or fish-eye effects seem unlikely to have been an accident, even pushing the camera right at her face. Easy to create that effect with video editing software.

When I was looking around online at versions of the video, I noticed that many of the MSM and other intros for it started by making fun of Helen's looks and that probably half of the responses posted about the video did the same, often in the crudest ways. There has been a lot of it here at DU, too.

I also noticed that there were a lot of "derivative versions" that have been edited to make Helen's statement seem much more outrageous.

Helen somewhat fumbled her response, particularly mentioning Germany and Poland, which shifted the focus away from the settlements, seizing of private properties, human rights abuses, etc. Under Gush Eminum and Likud policies, many of the WB settlers had come directly from other countries and had never lived in Israel before.

BTW I suspect that the Jewish Heritage event would have reinforced the memory connections between the words "Jews", "Germany", and "Poland" for most anyone attending.

The unflattering close-up was something I noticed but didn't include in my post. The video looks like the work of an amateur cameraman, but it was done by an experienced filmmaker. It was most likely intentional.