My “association” with Helen Thomas began Friday, June 4th, 2010 when my friend Rabbi David Nesenoff sent me a video that contained a short explosive interview he had conducted with Helen Thomas at the White House on Jewish Heritage Day. On the tape, the veteran White House correspondent gave a statement that was seen as telling the Jews to go face another Holocaust. That was probably one of the more pleasant things Thomas publicly said about Jews during the last three years of her life. Although the video exposed her as an anti-Semite, it was covered as if her comment was simply anti-Israel.
David asked me if there was anything I could do with the video. He explained he’d already offered it to the mainstream media and even to The Jewish Week, a weekly progressive newspaper for the Jewish community, but no one wanted to take on Ms. Thomas who at the time was seen as the dean of the White House press corps.
Taking up David’s challenge, I guaranteed the video would have a half a million hits before he turned on the computer again after the Sabbath (I was wrong–it was over 750 thousand).
I quickly wrote it up for The Lid, Breitbart’s Big Journalism, and sent it to Scott Baker (who at the time was running Breitbart TV). To help the posts gain some traction I sent out tweets and emails to most of the large sites. Before leaving on a five-hour car ride to my brother’s house for the weekend, the video was posted on the all the “Big” sites and as a banner Drudge headline.
Turning on the TV news five hours later, the same Helen Thomas video they had rejected a few days earlier was dominating the headlines of the mainstream media.
In the three years afterward Thomas, unencumbered by a “front line” media job made new anti-Semitic comments, but her colleagues in the media protected her by claiming her slanders were political, not hateful. Their claim is that she wasn’t anti-Semitic, but simply anti-Israel—a dangerous affront to the truth. For example last year Michael Calderone wrote at Huffington Post:
Thomas, a former WHCA president who covered 10 administrations before retiring from Hearst newspapers in 2010 over controversial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Charles Lewis former investigative producer for ABC News and the CBS’s 60 Minutes recently created a new website to honor “independent” journalists. One of the site’s initial honorees was Ms. Thomas. In their chronology of her career the site reported:
After making controversial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Thomas retires from Hearst Newspapers.
Today White House Correspondents’ Association President Steve Thomma has issued the following statement:
Helen Thomas was a trailblazer in journalism and in the White House press corps, covering presidents from John F. Kennedy through Barack Obama.
Starting with the Kennedy administration, she was the first woman to cover the president and not just the First Lady.
At her urging in 1962, Kennedy said he would not attend the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents Association unless it was opened to women for the first time. It was.
And in 1975-76, she served as the first woman president of the association.
Women and men who’ve followed in the press corps all owe a debt of gratitude for the work Helen did and the doors she opened. All of our journalism is the better for it”
I wonder when David Duke dies, will the mention his membership in the KKK?
The mainstream media continues to whitewash Ms. Thomas’ statement as about the “Israel- Palestinian conflict.” That is a lie.
If making false and slanderous statements regarding Israel was a crime that leads to termination, the NY Times newsroom would be empty, Peter Jennings would have been sent home by ABC to live with his former lover/Palestinian Authority Official Hanan Ashrawi and Mike Wallace would have been ousted from 60 Minutes decades before his death. Heck even in Israel you don’t get fired for being anti-Israel (have you ever read the Israeli paper Ha’aretz?).
What I hadn’t counted on after story broke was, how much the mainstream media loved and wanted to protect Ms Thomas. Within a few days of the original post, David was being slandered by Mediaite, Juan Cole was accusing me of selectively editing the video (and other affronts to Ms Thomas) causing Helen Thomas to resign under fire.
If you want more proof of Helen Thomas’ hatred, then examine what she said since her “resignation.”
Just six months after her firing retirement Thomas was at it again (again it was captured on video and again the story was broken on The Lid and Big Journalism
Ironically it was a speech at a Arab anti-bias conference Thomas was asked about her statements on that video.
“I paid the price for that,” said Thomas, a longtime White House correspondent. “But it was worth it, to speak the truth. The Zionists have to understand that’s their country, too. Palestinians were there long before any European Zionists.”
Alluding to the anti-Semitic claim that Jews control the media, Thomas said:
“You can not say anything (critical) about Israel in this country.
That was the nicest thing Thomas said all night. In her speech about discrimination against Arabs she blamed it on the Jews, launching into an anti-Semitic tirade about how those rich Jews control America (video embedded below).
In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Thomas claimed:
the whole question of money involved in politics.” ”We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is…We’re being pushed into a wrong direction in every way.
While Ms Thomas’ comments were horrible and very anti-Semitic, my follow-up post disagreed with the calls that Ms. Thomas should be fired for her anti-Semitic rantings. Helen Thomas was merely a symptom of the problem, not the disease, her firing would be like treating HIV with a band-aid.The mainstream media which is politically correct about every other ethnic group, features anti-Semites all of the time without barely a peep about their hatred. Even today, bigots such as Al Sharpton and Pat Buchanan are featured on TV and print media. But three days after the video was published, Thomas announced her (forced?) resignation from Hearst Newspapers (June 7).
In the three years between that video going viral and her death Helen Thomas, unencumbered by a “front line” media job, grew more aggressive in making anti-Semitic comments, Her colleagues in the media protected her by claiming her slanders were political, not hateful. Their claim is that she wasn’t anti-Semitic, but simply anti-Israel—a dangerous affront to the truth.
For example Michael Calderone wrote at Huffington Post:
<blockquote
Thomas, a former WHCA president who covered 10 administrations before retiring from Hearst newspapers in 2010 over controversial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Charles Lewis former investigative producer for ABC News and the CBS’s 60 Minutes created a website to honor “independent” journalists. One of the site’s initial honorees was Ms. Thomas. In their chronology of her career the site reported:
After making controversial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Thomas retires from Hearst Newspapers.
Proving that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, on December 2nd, almost six months to the day the original video went viral, another Lid scoop reported that Helen Thomas spoke at an anti-Arab bias workshop in Dearborn Michigan spewing more anti-Semitism. At the anti-Bias conference, Thomas explained that she absolutely stood by her ugly comments about Jews made earlier this year and added the anti-Semitic canard that Zionists control U.S. foreign policy and other American institutions.
“We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is…We’re being pushed into a wrong direction in every way.
The video below is her speech in Dearborn.
After her stint at the anti-Arab bias conference, Thomas kept spewing hatred . In March 2011 Playboy interviewed her
When asked by the interviewer if she had a personal antipathy toward Jews themselves Thomas labeled the Jews as Arab-haters and denied they had a historical connection to the Jewish State. She made some renewed claims about the worldwide “Jewish” conspiracy a little later in the interview.
PLAYBOY: That stereotype of Jewish control has been around for more than a century. Do you actually think there’s a secret Jewish conspiracy at work in this country?
THOMAS: Not a secret. It’s very open. What do you mean secret?
PLAYBOY: Well, for instance, explain the connection between Hollywood and what’s happening with the Palestinians.
THOMAS: Power over the White House, power over Congress.
PLAYBOY: By way of contributions?
THOMAS: Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control.
Helen Thomas was a trail blazer. When it comes to the White House press corps, she broke the “glass ceiling,’ she mentored new reporters, and always pressed President’s and their Press Secretaries for honest answers to difficult questions.
A Journalist’s job is telling the truth. While the mainstream media whitewashed Ms.Thomas’ “go back to Germany” statement as about the “Israel- Palestinian conflict.” That’s a lie. And if the original statement first published seven years ago didn’t prove it, her comments in Dearborn and to Playboy should be enough corroboration to prove what she meant
When Helen Thomas said the Palestinians were in the Holy Land long before any European Zionists, she was being historically inaccurate and biased against Israel. But when she said the media Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by Zionists, Thomas was using traditional anti-Semitic libels straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
When Roger Ailes passed away earlier this year, the mainstream media focused on the scandal that cost him his position running Fox News. When Helen Thomas died on July 20th, 2013 she was celebrated by the mainstream media as the trailblazer she was. However in telling her story, the media continues to ignore and/or falsified her entire story. Her career was not ruined by an anti-Israel comment, her career was ruined because she was a vicious anti-Semite–and that hatred began to be exposed on this site seven years ago.
