Helen Thomas
82 years old, and she can deck the “fitness buff” president with one stroke of her pen
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
02/26/03
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Politics/helen.htm
The thing about Helen Thomas isn’t that she’s been a top reporter for so
long. Nearly everyone knows about her pioneering work as a female Washington journalist in the 1950s, and her debut as a national reporter at the White House press
conferences when John F. Kennedy was just inaugurated.
No, the thing about her is that she’s been involved in so many major stories,
taken part in so many major events. Her biography will cover a sizeable swatch of the
major events of American history in the second half of the twentieth century, and the
first years of this new century. She went with Nixon to China. She covered LBJ’s
first presidential press conference. She had interviews with eight presidents. She
terrified nine presidents – including the one we have now.
What is less well known is that she has become a target for the trash right in
America over the past few years, ever since she quit at United Press International a
couple of days after “Reverend” Sun Myung Moon bought it up.
If you’ve ever wondered how the American right became so poisonously psychotic, you need only got through the pages of the Washington Times to discover
part of the answer. Moon, after his efforts to establish his cult religion in America
during the 1970s and 1980s failed spectacularly, decided he was going to take a more
secular approach, and help dismantle the secular government of the land in order to
improve his odds of gaining a messianic toehold.
Never let it be said that Moon doesn’t put the money of his brainwashed
followers where his mouth is. He has sunk over a billion dollars into keeping the
Washington Times afloat (even the “acceptance” of the Times as a major news source
by such outfits as Faux News and Ailes’ little EIB empire has failed to make it
profitable) plus unknown amounts more into Insight Magazine and now UPI.
So nobody was particularly surprised when Helen Thomas quit. Working for
an Moon outfit is a fast way to get a reporter labeled as an ideological hack, and
Thomas always maintained the highest professional standards as a reporter. She even
gave the new owners, if not a professional benediction, at least the benefit of the doubt,
saying, "United Press International is a great news agency. It has made a remarkable
mark in the annals of American journalism and has left a superb legacy for future
journalists. I wish the new owners all the best, great stories, and happy landings."
The woman is a superb crafter of language. Every statement says precisely
what it is meant to say, nothing more, and nothing less.
She decided to stop being a reporter, and be a columnist.
It turns out that she’s having a lot of fun being a columnist.
She’s always had opinions, but she was such a professional as a journalist
that nobody knew what they were.
She put it this way: "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter.
Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'"
Right wingers quickly found out that Thomas not only liked having opinions
in public, but that they were devastatingly perceptive opinions. For example, she had
this to say about Putsch: “"I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go
to war. Bush's policy of pre-emptive war is immoral - such a policy would legitimize
Pearl Harbor. It's as if they learned none of the lessons from Vietnam." Sarah Wright,
in the same article, went on to quote Thomas as saying, "Where is the outrage? Where
is Congress? They're supine! Bush has held only six press conferences, the only forum
in our society where a president can be questioned. I'm on the phone to Ari Fleischer
every day, asking will he ever hold another one? The international world is wondering
what happened to America's great heart and soul."
This is stuff right wingers really don’t want to see being discussed in the
media. They get really upset. Nowdays, they get nasty, too. After all, they are thugs
who have the backing of a thuggish administration. Nasty is good in a vile cause.
What really drove them nuts was the praise she received from Clinton as she
was leaving the White House Press Corp. In the crippled and barren hearts of the right
wing, there is no room for the gracious gesture, the token of respect for a job well done.
Clinton said, "Presidents come and go, but Helen has been here for 40 years now covering eight presidents and doubtless showing the ropes to countless young
reporters. And, I might add, more than a few press secretaries. I hope this change will
bring new rewards and new fulfillment to her, whatever she decides to do. I'll feel a
little better about my country if I know she'll still be spending her time around here at
the White House."
Damning stuff, in the gimlet eyes of the right wing.
A fairly typical example of the vitriol this caused came from one of the
nastier elements of the right, who wrote, “I always wanted some White House spokesman — Jim Brady, Larry Speakes, Marlin Fitzwater — or even a president
himself to say to her, ‘Look, lady, you may be old and a woman, but you’re an
insulting, unthinking, harshly partisan so-and-so, and I’m not going to deal with your
nonsense anymore.’ But, alas: the same old deference. No way she could get away with
it if she were a) biased in a conservative direction and b) a man. Not even advanced
years would help her then.”
Sit back and savor the irony of a male right-winger whining in this particular
manner. They can be amazing creatures, these right wingers. Heaven forbid that a male
right winger should be insulting, unthinking, harshly partisan, et cetera et cetera. But
because they’re male and “conservative,” they aren’t allowed. Oh, boo,
hoo.
This came from a guy who didn’t go to China, never covered a war, probably
has never had to put his butt on the line for honesty in a story.
Right wingers are amazing creatures.
But then, so is Helen Thomas, in a much better way.
There have been rumors around that Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer have been
encouraging the right to gang up on Helen Thomas. Sounds about right.
All I can say is, best of luck to them if they try. They’re going to need it.