{"id":1785,"date":"2010-06-08T03:16:23","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T10:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1785"},"modified":"2010-06-08T03:16:23","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T10:16:23","slug":"helen-thomas-what-a-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/08\/helen-thomas-what-a-way-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Thomas: What a Way to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helen Thomas was right to apologize for her remarks and right to retire in the wake of them, but it saddens me to see her long and distinguished career end in infamy.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"HelenThomas\"<\/a> Helen Thomas, the legendary White House reporter who broke down barriers against female journalists covering politics<\/strong>, will retire after controversial remarks criticized by many as anti-Israel.<\/p>\n

Hearst, her latest employer and owner of numerous media properties, including The Chronicle, on Monday announced the immediate retirement of Thomas, who will be 90 on Aug. 4.<\/p>\n

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 or the United States<\/strong>. Her comments were caught on videotape and widely distributed.<\/p>\n

The remarks caused a furor even though she immediately apologized. Her invitation to speak at a local graduation was rescinded. Jewish groups called her remarks ignorant and insensitive and said her apology did not go far enough.<\/p>\n

"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians<\/strong>," Thomas said in a statement. "They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon<\/strong>."<\/p>\n

A daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Thomas did little to hide her pro-Arab views. During George W. Bush’s presidency, her questions to both the president and his press secretaries were almost exclusively about the war in Iraq<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday condemned the comments, calling them "offensive and reprehensible<\/strong>." Thomas, who has had a front-row seat in the briefing room for many years, was not present.<\/p>\n

The White House Correspondents Association also issued a rare admonishment, calling her comments "indefensible<\/strong>."<\/p>\n

"Many in our profession who have known Helen for years were saddened by the comments, which were especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trail blazer on the White House beat," said the statement.<\/p>\n

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, said in a statement that Thomas’ apology was insufficient\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>><\/p>\n

Offensive, reprehensible and indefensible are all good descriptions of what she said.  Had she not retired, I would be calling for her to do so.  Her apology, in the context of her retirement is completely adequate.<\/font><\/p>\n

You may ask why I am opposing one of our own.  I have often condemned the statements of Glen Beck, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Bill O\u2019Reilly, Sarah Palin, and at east a couple dozen GOP Governors, Representatives, Senators, appointees, and candidates for office, many of which were equally or more offensive, reprehensible and indefensible.  Where I not to hold our own to the same standard, I would be a hypocrite, just like the Republican leaders, who excuse and often echo such behavior by their associates and pundits.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helen Thomas was right to apologize for her remarks and right to retire in the wake of them, but it saddens me to see her long and distinguished career end in infamy. Helen Thomas, the legendary White House reporter who broke down barriers against female journalists covering politics, will retire after controversial remarks criticized by […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}