Link to story in Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6/07/AR2010060704184.html?sid=ST2010060701502
In this blog I do not seek to defend Helen Thomas.
What I am seeking are comments on her having Freedom of Speech as guaranteed by the American Constitution.
IMHO I believe that she has been denied that right.
Over the years she has undoubtedly been a Journalist who sought to get answers to the most pressing problems besetting the USA, the fact that she questions people in an extremely biased way is perhaps regrettable, but this was her job, get the story, write it up, ensure it was printed.
Up until her recent resignation she and her methods of gaining news was applauded, she was likened to an English Bulldog who having got a bone between it's jaws was not going to drop it until it had extracted the marrow from within.
That she may have been an Anti Semite was never suggested prior to this incident and in my own mind I firmly believe that she was not.
It is very true that her family had emigrated from Lebanon prior to her being born in America, it is likely that her family had decided views about Lebanon but those views would not have necessarily been Anti Semitic as Jewish Immigration into the Middle east was not at that time of any importance (I am talking of the era 1920s).
Helen Thomas answered a question by saying that the Jews should return to their (previous) homelands, and suggested Poland/Germany/USA.
It is true to say that the Holocaust took place in Poland and Germany, so far as I am able to determine it NEVER took place within the USA.
But, everyone and their dog immediately jumped on those two Nations where the Holocaust had been carried out to it's most extreme extent.
Helen Thomas had made NO mention of the Holocaust, she was not suggesting that the Holocaust was in any way acceptable.
All she was suggesting was that Jews should return from whence they came
prior to coming to Israel to settle down and create a Nation.
For these words that she spoke, everyone who felt they had been mistreated by her during her long career jumped on to her and suggested that she was saying something quite different from what she actually did say.
Now it is very true that sometimes we all say things that we do not mean, that perhaps with a little thought we might have phrased differently, but for this woman to be castigated NOT for what she actually said BUT for what people thought she said is, to be honest,disgusting.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6/07/AR2010060704184.html?sid=ST2010060701502
In this blog I do not seek to defend Helen Thomas.
What I am seeking are comments on her having Freedom of Speech as guaranteed by the American Constitution.
IMHO I believe that she has been denied that right.
Over the years she has undoubtedly been a Journalist who sought to get answers to the most pressing problems besetting the USA, the fact that she questions people in an extremely biased way is perhaps regrettable, but this was her job, get the story, write it up, ensure it was printed.
Up until her recent resignation she and her methods of gaining news was applauded, she was likened to an English Bulldog who having got a bone between it's jaws was not going to drop it until it had extracted the marrow from within.
That she may have been an Anti Semite was never suggested prior to this incident and in my own mind I firmly believe that she was not.
It is very true that her family had emigrated from Lebanon prior to her being born in America, it is likely that her family had decided views about Lebanon but those views would not have necessarily been Anti Semitic as Jewish Immigration into the Middle east was not at that time of any importance (I am talking of the era 1920s).
Helen Thomas answered a question by saying that the Jews should return to their (previous) homelands, and suggested Poland/Germany/USA.
It is true to say that the Holocaust took place in Poland and Germany, so far as I am able to determine it NEVER took place within the USA.
But, everyone and their dog immediately jumped on those two Nations where the Holocaust had been carried out to it's most extreme extent.
Helen Thomas had made NO mention of the Holocaust, she was not suggesting that the Holocaust was in any way acceptable.
All she was suggesting was that Jews should return from whence they came
prior to coming to Israel to settle down and create a Nation.
For these words that she spoke, everyone who felt they had been mistreated by her during her long career jumped on to her and suggested that she was saying something quite different from what she actually did say.
Now it is very true that sometimes we all say things that we do not mean, that perhaps with a little thought we might have phrased differently, but for this woman to be castigated NOT for what she actually said BUT for what people thought she said is, to be honest,disgusting.