Helen Thomas Retires

Posted on | June 7, 2010 | 38 Comments

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately, in the wake of a controversy over her comments on Israel, according to a report from her employer, Hearst News Service.
Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland.

(Via Memeorandum.) Rumors that Ms. Thomas plans to spend her retirement in Gaza serving as a “comfort woman” for Hamas terrorists could not be immediately confirmed.

Meanwhile, Reason magazine editor Matt Welch — who is not a stupid dopehead — notes that Helen Thomas certainly isn’t the only “objective” reporter who has opinions:

[S]ome of the most politically opinionated people you’ll ever meet are newspaper reporters a couple drinks in out yakking with their colleagues. . . .
[T]he partisanship-averse journos haven’t bothered to construct their own self-conscious political philosophy, beyond identifying Bad Guys and wanting to Fix Problems. Show me the world’s most intractable problems — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the inability to produce mass amounts of energy without negatively impacting the environment, the search for a beer that tastes great and is less filling — and I’ll show you reporters in bars having conversations worthy of the Alex Jones show. It’s not that they’re all Helen Thomases — she is truly one of a kind — but that in the absence of subjecting their own beliefs to journalistic rigor, they are more likely than many would expect to quietly nurture beliefs that outsiders would find surprisingly slanted and even extreme.

You should read the whole thing.

Category: Israel, Media Bias, Terrorism

Comments

38 Responses to “Helen Thomas Retires”

Dave C
June 7th, 2010 @ 6:35 pm

She lost her sole purpose in this life which was to keep her seat warm in the White House Press Pool.

I’m updating my dead pool for this year.
Dave C
June 7th, 2010 @ 6:35 pm

She lost her sole purpose in this life which was to keep her seat warm in the White House Press Pool.

I’m updating my dead pool for this year.
Dave C
June 7th, 2010 @ 2:35 pm

She lost her sole purpose in this life which was to keep her seat warm in the White House Press Pool.

I’m updating my dead pool for this year.
Robert Stacy McCain
June 7th, 2010 @ 6:55 pm

I’m updating my dead pool for this year.

Nah. She survived the 1942 retreat from Moscow. She’ll survive this.
Robert Stacy McCain
June 7th, 2010 @ 6:55 pm

I’m updating my dead pool for this year.

Nah. She survived the 1942 retreat from Moscow. She’ll survive this.
Robert Stacy McCain
June 7th, 2010 @ 2:55 pm

I’m updating my dead pool for this year.

Nah. She survived the 1942 retreat from Moscow. She’ll survive this.
smitty
June 7th, 2010 @ 7:25 pm

@RSM:
Correction: Napoleon retreated from Moscow in 1812.
smitty
June 7th, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

@RSM:
Correction: Napoleon retreated from Moscow in 1812.
Count Vikula
June 7th, 2010 @ 7:35 pm

Don’t mess with the Jews, baby!
Count Vikula
June 7th, 2010 @ 3:35 pm

Don’t mess with the Jews, baby!
Ran / Si Vis Pacem
June 7th, 2010 @ 7:36 pm

She didn’t retreat from Moscow any more than Ben-Zion Goldberg, John Spivak or Mark Gayn had.

Just sayin’.
Ran / Si Vis Pacem
June 7th, 2010 @ 7:36 pm

She didn’t retreat from Moscow any more than Ben-Zion Goldberg, John Spivak or Mark Gayn had.

Just sayin’.
Ran / Si Vis Pacem
June 7th, 2010 @ 3:36 pm

She didn’t retreat from Moscow any more than Ben-Zion Goldberg, John Spivak or Mark Gayn had.

Just sayin’.
H-Hour For The Anti-President « The Camp Of The Saints
June 7th, 2010 @ 3:55 pm

[…] #2: Helen Thomas has resigned [Stacy McCain has a good report up datelined from Treblinka here]. He writes: Rumors that Ms. Thomas plans to spend her retirement in Gaza serving as a “comfort […]
richard mcenroe
June 7th, 2010 @ 8:44 pm

I remember Helen Thomas and her epic coverage of the Egyptian cross-Suez amphibious operations at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

At least I assume that’s her yelling “Go! Go! You magnificent raghead bastards…!” as they pushed ashore…
richard mcenroe
June 7th, 2010 @ 8:44 pm

I remember Helen Thomas and her epic coverage of the Egyptian cross-Suez amphibious operations at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

At least I assume that’s her yelling “Go! Go! You magnificent raghead bastards…!” as they pushed ashore…
richard mcenroe
June 7th, 2010 @ 4:44 pm

I remember Helen Thomas and her epic coverage of the Egyptian cross-Suez amphibious operations at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

At least I assume that’s her yelling “Go! Go! You magnificent raghead bastards…!” as they pushed ashore…
Joe
June 7th, 2010 @ 8:51 pm

Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Joe
June 7th, 2010 @ 8:51 pm

Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Joe
June 7th, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Bob Belvedere
June 7th, 2010 @ 9:53 pm

Stacy, everyone: I have a picture taken of Fräulein Thomas after she resigned!
Bob Belvedere
June 7th, 2010 @ 9:53 pm

Stacy, everyone: I have a picture taken of Fräulein Thomas after she resigned!
Bob Belvedere
June 7th, 2010 @ 5:53 pm

Stacy, everyone: I have a picture taken of Fräulein Thomas after she resigned!
Mikey NTH
June 7th, 2010 @ 11:47 pm

Everyone has an opinion is the old saying. Where that becomes a problem is when everyone in your place of work shares the same opinion, but that opinion is not one that the general public (outside of your place-of-work group) shares or finds anyway acceptable.

With Ms. Thomas it could be merely a personal opinion brought to the surface by senility. However, it could be something shared by the reporters she spends her time with, and I am thinking that it is a shared opinion that the bulk know enough to keep to themselves.

She got caught; and maybe some others may temper themselves. We can hope for that.
Mikey NTH
June 7th, 2010 @ 11:47 pm

Everyone has an opinion is the old saying. Where that becomes a problem is when everyone in your place of work shares the same opinion, but that opinion is not one that the general public (outside of your place-of-work group) shares or finds anyway acceptable.

With Ms. Thomas it could be merely a personal opinion brought to the surface by senility. However, it could be something shared by the reporters she spends her time with, and I am thinking that it is a shared opinion that the bulk know enough to keep to themselves.

She got caught; and maybe some others may temper themselves. We can hope for that.
Mikey NTH
June 7th, 2010 @ 7:47 pm

Everyone has an opinion is the old saying. Where that becomes a problem is when everyone in your place of work shares the same opinion, but that opinion is not one that the general public (outside of your place-of-work group) shares or finds anyway acceptable.

With Ms. Thomas it could be merely a personal opinion brought to the surface by senility. However, it could be something shared by the reporters she spends her time with, and I am thinking that it is a shared opinion that the bulk know enough to keep to themselves.

She got caught; and maybe some others may temper themselves. We can hope for that.
Helen Thomas
June 8th, 2010 @ 12:18 am

Tip tap tip tap…whose that walking over my bridge.
Helen Thomas
June 8th, 2010 @ 12:18 am

Tip tap tip tap…whose that walking over my bridge.
Helen Thomas
June 7th, 2010 @ 8:18 pm

Tip tap tip tap…whose that walking over my bridge.
Brooks
June 8th, 2010 @ 5:25 am

Ms. Thomases remarks are typical of the “Arab-Americans” I’ve known. I recently had an long-term acquaintance of mine of Lebanese extraction tell me how great it was the Lebanon was part of Vichy France during WWII. My crude response was that was exactly what I’d expect from a culture whose written language was based on Mohammed’s peckertracks. There’s a reason there’s never been an Arab Nobel laureate in sciences and a reason most sensible people would never hire an Arab physician, lawyer, to say nothing of an Arab plumber. They simply don’t have the intellectual heft to participate in decent human society.
Brooks
June 8th, 2010 @ 5:25 am

Ms. Thomases remarks are typical of the “Arab-Americans” I’ve known. I recently had an long-term acquaintance of mine of Lebanese extraction tell me how great it was the Lebanon was part of Vichy France during WWII. My crude response was that was exactly what I’d expect from a culture whose written language was based on Mohammed’s peckertracks. There’s a reason there’s never been an Arab Nobel laureate in sciences and a reason most sensible people would never hire an Arab physician, lawyer, to say nothing of an Arab plumber. They simply don’t have the intellectual heft to participate in decent human society.
Brooks
June 8th, 2010 @ 1:25 am

Ms. Thomases remarks are typical of the “Arab-Americans” I’ve known. I recently had an long-term acquaintance of mine of Lebanese extraction tell me how great it was the Lebanon was part of Vichy France during WWII. My crude response was that was exactly what I’d expect from a culture whose written language was based on Mohammed’s peckertracks. There’s a reason there’s never been an Arab Nobel laureate in sciences and a reason most sensible people would never hire an Arab physician, lawyer, to say nothing of an Arab plumber. They simply don’t have the intellectual heft to participate in decent human society.
richard mcenroe
June 8th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

Brooks, I’ve known, worked and served with too many Arabs and Arab-Americans to believe that is true. I will agree that the culture of the Middle East inhibits excellence better than the cinder-blocks chained to Harrison Bergeron’s ankles, but that’s a classic case of culture over natural potential.
richard mcenroe
June 8th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

Brooks, I’ve known, worked and served with too many Arabs and Arab-Americans to believe that is true. I will agree that the culture of the Middle East inhibits excellence better than the cinder-blocks chained to Harrison Bergeron’s ankles, but that’s a classic case of culture over natural potential.
richard mcenroe
June 8th, 2010 @ 11:46 am

Brooks, I’ve known, worked and served with too many Arabs and Arab-Americans to believe that is true. I will agree that the culture of the Middle East inhibits excellence better than the cinder-blocks chained to Harrison Bergeron’s ankles, but that’s a classic case of culture over natural potential.
Ron Jones
June 8th, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

*snort* snicker… gasp… guffaw… cough… Bwahahahahah!

But she’s never been Biased, right?!

typical liberal response to Helen Thomas over drinks in a smoky D.C. Bar:
“You know we all support you, and agree with you, but did you have to say it…out loud?”
Ron Jones
June 8th, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

*snort* snicker… gasp… guffaw… cough… Bwahahahahah!

But she’s never been Biased, right?!

typical liberal response to Helen Thomas over drinks in a smoky D.C. Bar:
“You know we all support you, and agree with you, but did you have to say it…out loud?”
Ron Jones
June 8th, 2010 @ 12:03 pm

*snort* snicker… gasp… guffaw… cough… Bwahahahahah!

But she’s never been Biased, right?!

typical liberal response to Helen Thomas over drinks in a smoky D.C. Bar:
“You know we all support you, and agree with you, but did you have to say it…out loud?”