Any Thoughts Re: Helen Thomas Retiring in the Wake of Anti-Israel Remarks?
To many in Washington, two sets of rules seemed to apply for journalists covering the president: those for regular White House correspondents, and those for Helen Thomas.
To every president since John F. Kennedy, Ms. Thomas, 89, was known for posing questions in the kind of tough and provocative manner that could make press secretaries gasp and her colleagues cringe.
And it appears that her tart tongue may have finally ended her career. Ms. Thomas said on Monday that she was retiring, effective immediately, after an uproar over her recent remarks that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go home to “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”
As the furor over her comments went viral...
Helen Thomas announced on Monday that she was retiring, moments after the White House Correspondents Association said it was considering stripping her of her front-row press room seat.
The 89-year-old “dean of the White House press corps” had caused an uproar after making remarks in May suggesting that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to Germany and Poland “or wherever they came from.”
Ms. Thomas, a columnist for Hearst Newspapers who has frequently been critical of Israel, had apologized for the comments. She made them to a rabbi who interviewed her on videotape outside the White House during a celebration of Jewish heritage in May.
The decision to retire, effective immediately, was announced by Hearst Newspapers, which syndicates her column. Ms. Thomas will turn 90 on Aug. 4.
The board of the correspondents association had just met to consider how to respond to her contentious remarks, and had issued this statement:
Earlier on Monday, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, condemned the remarks made by Ms. Thomas.
Mr. Gibbs said he had not spoken directly with the president about it. But, he added: “Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. She should and has apologized. Obviously those remarks do not reflect, certainly, the opinion of I assume most of the people in here, and certainly not of the administration.”
“Cranky was her modus operandi. And it worked,” said Charles Bierbauer, who was CNN’s White House correspondent for nine years and is now the dean of the college of mass communications and information studies at the University of South Carolina.
Ms. Thomas was also known for her stubbornness. Mr. Bierbauer recalled a conversation he had with her when he left the White House beat in 1993.
“I said to her, ‘How long are you going to stay?’ And she said, ‘Until they take me out feet first.’ ”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/business...
To every president since John F. Kennedy, Ms. Thomas, 89, was known for posing questions in the kind of tough and provocative manner that could make press secretaries gasp and her colleagues cringe.
And it appears that her tart tongue may have finally ended her career. Ms. Thomas said on Monday that she was retiring, effective immediately, after an uproar over her recent remarks that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go home to “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”
As the furor over her comments went viral...
Helen Thomas announced on Monday that she was retiring, moments after the White House Correspondents Association said it was considering stripping her of her front-row press room seat.
The 89-year-old “dean of the White House press corps” had caused an uproar after making remarks in May suggesting that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to Germany and Poland “or wherever they came from.”
Ms. Thomas, a columnist for Hearst Newspapers who has frequently been critical of Israel, had apologized for the comments. She made them to a rabbi who interviewed her on videotape outside the White House during a celebration of Jewish heritage in May.
The decision to retire, effective immediately, was announced by Hearst Newspapers, which syndicates her column. Ms. Thomas will turn 90 on Aug. 4.
The board of the correspondents association had just met to consider how to respond to her contentious remarks, and had issued this statement:
Earlier on Monday, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, condemned the remarks made by Ms. Thomas.
Mr. Gibbs said he had not spoken directly with the president about it. But, he added: “Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. She should and has apologized. Obviously those remarks do not reflect, certainly, the opinion of I assume most of the people in here, and certainly not of the administration.”
“Cranky was her modus operandi. And it worked,” said Charles Bierbauer, who was CNN’s White House correspondent for nine years and is now the dean of the college of mass communications and information studies at the University of South Carolina.
Ms. Thomas was also known for her stubbornness. Mr. Bierbauer recalled a conversation he had with her when he left the White House beat in 1993.
“I said to her, ‘How long are you going to stay?’ And she said, ‘Until they take me out feet first.’ ”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/business...
Personally I'm glad Ms. Thomas left the White House. She was too anti-Semitic for me