Nader says reinstate Helen Thomas

From a TRNN interview:
NADER: She should be reinstated. She's a courageous journalist. She came here in 1942, blazed the way for women like no one did -- the first president of the Correspondents' Association of White House correspondents, the head of the Gridiron Dinner. She demanded that all these doors that were closed to females be opened up, and she was the courageous pioneer.

She also set a standard for journalism, asking the tough questions on the minds of most Americans that the weak-kneed White House press corps would never ask, like to Bush, why did you invade Iraq? A million people have died. Et cetera. She would ask questions that started with why, and that's almost a taboo in the White House press corps. You know, you ask softball questions, but you don't ask questions about violating international law, violating our constitution, violating our statutes, questions dealing with torture, with surveillance of Americans without a court review. And she also asked questions about the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Now, she's sitting on a bench in the White House during Jewish Heritage Week, and a rabbi comes up, and he said, hi, Helen; what do you think about journalism? She said, I think it's a great profession; you can't lose; young people should go into it; let everybody learn it. He said, what do you think about Israel? She said, well, they should get out of Palestine. And hardly a controversial statement. You know, I mean, the UN resolutions say they should get out of the West Bank and Gaza, 242 and so on.

And then he asks her, well, what would they do? And that's when she said something which I don't think she believes. She apologized right away. She said something that basically was an offhand comment. Like, a lot of people make an offhand comment. You know how many people -- and we've all heard the Washington press corps privately (she didn't do this as part of her job; just an offhand comment) say bad things about Arabs.

Anti-Semitism against Arabs is rife in politics today, not just talk radio. I mean, you've got Savage, you've got Hannity, you've got Limbaugh. I mean, the things they say about Muslims and Muslim Americans--. And how about Ann Coulter? She didn't lose a $30,000 speech, she didn't lose any gig, she didn't lose her column, and she said horrific things about going over there and slaughtering Muslims if they can't be converted to Christianity--she added that point.

So, I mean, one mistake like that--which she apologized for--and they terminated her column, they terminated her career. They're going to replace her in the White House press corps. It's like a professional execution. And now the polls, I'm told, are highly in favor of her coming back.

from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-jay/nader-says-reinstate-hele_b_610764.html

As usual.

Like Helen he has a spine.

but about how craven the press corpse it. RIP to them, they've made themselves irrelevant.

It's Rabbi Cheech who should be strung up by the heels.

ugh. people like you love violence and violent imagery when it suits their purposes while braying piously against it in others.

Oh, and sorry, I support Helen. I think the response to her careless comment was purposely overblown and that she should not have resigned/been terminated.

tough for you.

So yeah. Tie the asshole up by his feet. And tie that O'Keefe fucker up there with him. And then swing them into one another.

We've got two assholes who engaged in "Gotcha" Borat-style "journalism" with intent of targeted character assassinations. Both were acting on orders from the Republicans to do so, and both happily conjured up racist incitement to get the job done. As a result both have very successfully ruined lives and careers for nothing more than a paltry paycheck and a few moments of fame on Michael Savage's forums or something, while at the same time even further damaging the integrity of our media and ratcheting it one notch closer to total mindless propagandizing.

You don't like violent imagery? I don't like seeing lives ruined by racist punks out for their fifteen minutes.

What Thomas said went beyond offhand, reasonable, or any other excusatory word. She may not have meant what she said... but the fact remains- she said what she said.

Nader is now just showing himself to be old, addle-minded, and nostalgic for the way things were when he wasn't viewed as being bat-shit insane by the general public.

I am fond of both of the old fucks... but can't they fucking retire already and open some job possibilities for those who don't qualify for fucking Social Security?? I mean... fuck off and shut the fuck up already... if they aren't gonna use their social security benefits... I'll fucking take them.

Let them work until someone notices they didn't show up to work and calls a next of kin only to find them dead on the floor in the bathroom... 'useful to the end'... but why waste all those hard-fought-for benefits??

Helen gave us years of good service and she then made this one comment. Of course Obama followers were looking for a reason to shut her up because she asked their overrated hero the tough questions and they didn't like that.

How would the exact same words said by people of different political parties not have the same meaning.

I think the bottom line is that Helen knows full well she should not have said what she said even if she believed it. There's no reason for us to engage in hypocritical justification.

Now there are none. Only corporate lackeys. Very sad indeed.

So much vitriol comes out against Muslims from all sides, one off handed remark from the best reporter in the press corps does not warrant this response. Well unless the remark is against Israel..such a double standard, it's sad!

"Thomas enraged plenty of observers when she suggested that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany, Poland and other nations." http://www.marketwatch.com/story/helen-thomass-israel-rant-is-irrelevant-2010-06-11

so she said Jews should get the hell out of Palestine and go home to Germany and Poland and she lost her job???? Why did the Jews come to Israel? Because they were rounded up and killed by Germans, French, Poles, etc. Europeans were only too happy that Israel was created, that way they could get rid of as many jews as possible just by people choosing to move to israel. Thanks largely to the creation of israel most of europe did no introspection about anti semitism after WWII aside from the Germans who actually organized the camps