Helen Thomas

[BostonPirate]

Boston Pirate, listen to yourself! Why don't you just say the Sandmen should have dragged her off to Carousel before she got old enough to embarrass herself by being wrong!

This would have been a big deal if she had not retracted, but now it's just a tempest in a teapot or a witch hunt or something.

no, you're right. its over.

that was the appropriate response. She was too good a reporter for too long to make such a mistake and yes, as a consumer i can have that opinion. She quit and now she is free to start a new career. And it is posible for an 89 year old woman with her history to do so. in many ways the shackles of impartiality are lifted from her. Imagine that... a woman who has personally gone toe to toe with generations of american presidents is now free to tell us what she really thought of them.

that is the ultimate insider and it is extremely intriguing to me.

I don't think she needs to be shuffled off to the retirement home. I just think she needs to stop being a reporter and I wish her well on the path that she has chosen to walk.

personal responsibility does matter, and this is all of her own making, both the beginning of her first stellar career and it's end.

I wont mind her having a new one... the idea of it is quite interesting.

 

[MercuryJones]

She was too good a reporter for too long to make such a mistake and yes, as a consumer i can have that opinion. She quit and now she is free to start a new career. And it is posible for an 89 year old woman with her history to do so. in many ways the shackles of impartiality are lifted from her. Imagine that... a woman who has personally gone toe to toe with generations of american presidents is now free to tell us what she really thought of them.

Well, except she's been a columnist rather than a reporter for a while now. So she's been free to have opinions with no burden of being impartial.

 

[MercuryJones]

Bottom line... she is a racist, and there is a minority president in the white house. She had to go.

I don't think disagreeing on Palestine makes someone a racist.

It's striking that for all the heinous things Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh say, a serious columnist can be driven to resign over disagreeing about Palestine. Whether you feel she's right or wrong, it's an interesting unforgivable sin.

And, Pirate, Thomas isn't a reporter and hasn't been one for a while, so she's not required or expected to be impartial or un-opinionated - she was a columnist.

 

[BostonPirate]

Well, except she's been a columnist rather than a reporter for a while now. So she's been free to have opinions with no burden of being impartial.

when did she leave the press pool at the white house?

 

[MercuryJones]

when did she leave the press pool at the white house?

She became an opinion columnist in 2000, and remained a part of the press pool - as an opinion columnist.

 

[BostonPirate]

She became an opinion columnist in 2000, and remained a part of the press pool - as an opinion columnist.

I don't like the sound of that. what was she doing in that vaunted front row seat if she was not a journalist?

it was just a seat of honor for the old gall until she dropped? she was just there to doodle on her pad and write how she felt about the experience?

 

[MercuryJones]

I don't like the sound of that. what was she doing in that vaunted front row seat if she was not a journalist?

She was in a seat out of tradition and respect, though some didn't like that it was occupied by an opinion columnist. But that's what she was.

 

[BostonPirate]

She was in a seat out of tradition and respect, though some didn't like that it was occupied by an opinion columnist. But that's what she was.

she should not have been there.

it set her up for this. It created a conflict that had only one posible conclusion.

this lays at the feet of the editor that made that call. She should have left the seat when she started writing opinions.

You can't be a vegetarian and work at the slaughterhouse.

 

[NickCole]

she should not have been there.

it set her up for this. It created a conflict that had only one posible conclusion.

this lays at the feet of the editor that made that call. She should have left the seat when she started writing opinions.

You can't be a vegetarian and work at the slaughterhouse.

The only way you could believe that is if you don't understand what's happened with WH correspondents in the past ten years. Opinion, editorializing and obvious bias is infused into several if not most reports from the White House. The only difference between them and Helen Thomas is that she was honest and forthright about transitioning from reporter to columnist.

Helen Thomas remained a journalist who was as diligent about holding the feet of all administrations to the fire, both Republican and Democrat. Her loss is our loss -- that is the say a loss for those of us who want our public servants held accountable.

 

[MercuryJones]

she should not have been there.

That's an opinion. But it's rather up to the White House, and there are no objective rules or criteria.

"it set her up for this. It created a conflict that had only one posible conclusion.

this lays at the feet of the editor that made that call. She should have left the seat when she started writing opinions.

I'm not sure why. There are other opinion columnists there, I'm certain.

 

[NickCole]

I'm not sure why. There are other opinion columnists there, I'm certain.

Not technically.

They're supposed to be reporters, not opinion writers. Of course it's often hard to tell the difference these days but the job of the WH press pool is to report information, not give us their opinion of it.

Thomas was invited to keep her seat as a nod of respect for her many years of highly regarded reporting from that seat in the front row. Both her number of years there and her being invited to remain, as a columnist, were unprecedented.

 

[MercuryJones]

Not technically.

They're supposed to be reporters, not opinion writers.

According to whom?

 

[BostonPirate]

Not technically.

They're supposed to be reporters, not opinion writers. Of course it's often hard to tell the difference these days but the job of the WH press pool is to report information, not give us their opinion of it.

thank you, finally something you have said i can agree with.

 

[NickCole]

According to whom?

According to what I know.

Tell you what, why don't you name the columnists other than Helen Thomas who are assigned seats in the White House Briefing Room.

Here's a seating chart of who sits where:

 

[MercuryJones]

According to what I know.

But when you say she shouldn't technically be there, what I'm asking is according to what rule book? Who decides who gets to be there?

 

[NickCole]

But when you say she shouldn't technically be there,

Sorry to be a stickler but I'm a writer, I try to be precise in writing what I mean, and I've noticed that arguments get changed here through rewording.

I didn't say Helen Thomas "shouldn't technically be there."

You wrote, "There are other opinion columnists there, I'm certain."

And I responded, "Not technically," and then went on to explain they're supposed to be reporters, not opinion writers.

My response was about "other opinion columnists" being there, not about whether or not Helen Thomas should or shouldn't be there.

what I'm asking is according to what rule book?

I've never seen a "rule book" so I don't know that there is one.

Who decides who gets to be there?

White House Correspondents' Association

 

[BostonPirate]

The only way you could believe that is if you don't understand what's happened with WH correspondents in the past ten years. Opinion, editorializing and obvious bias is infused into several if not most reports from the White House. The only difference between them and Helen Thomas is that she was honest and forthright about transitioning from reporter to columnist.

Helen Thomas remained a journalist who was as diligent about holding the feet of all administrations to the fire, both Republican and Democrat. Her loss is our loss -- that is the say a loss for those of us who want our public servants held accountable.

point taken....

the entire media has been editorialized. That hellen thomas, the leader of her field, had sucumbed to the process is proof that it is now institutionalized and the entire media is suspect.

Meanwhile a new generation of americans are learning through invasive media cycles that facts are dependent upon opinion, not vice versa.

 

[NickCole]

point taken....

the entire media has been editorialized. That hellen thomas, the leader of her field, had sucumbed to the process is proof that it is now institutionalized and the entire media is suspect.

How did Helen Thomas succomb to the process?

Helen Thomas joined United Press International (UPI) in 1943 and continued there as a reporter (and eventually WH bureau chief) until 2000. After 57 years with UPI, she resigned the day after it was bought by News World Communications, controlled by the Unification Church's Reverend Sun Myung Moon (of the Bush loving "Moonies"). She had too much integrity to work for that organization. But she also was 80 years old and could not secure employment as a WH reporter with another national news organization. So she took the best offer she got, to write as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. She's always been completely forthright, reported as a reporter with an amazing level of non-bias towards any administration, and never pretended to be a reporter after she began writing as a columnist.

She's a remarkable woman of remarkable achievement who has maintained high standards and admirable integrity. And I think in recent weeks she's been treated as shabbily by fellow reporters and the Democratic White House as they've treated so many others who aren't nicey-nicey likey-likey going along with the current regime.

 

[BostonPirate]

I think she should have been an example and leader and lived up to this honorary status and walked away when she learned she was moving into opinion territory.

Instead of setting an example, she participated in a process of opinionating every fact beyond logic.

She needed to be out of the pool, but based on what I have read in this thread, I think she should not have retired her opinion collumn.

She was fired from an Op ed page for having an opinion... well thats silly.

putting a opinions piece writer on the front row? thats even sillier.

 

[MercuryJones]

So if it's up to the Association to decide who is able to sit in, and they decided Helen was okay, then I don't see how anyone can say she wasn't supposed to be there.