Our dear lady
Helen Thomas has spoken about
her views about Palestine that made her lose her job and force her in to retirement. She spoke in an interview with an Ohio radio station “
WMRN-AM” for 35 minutes where she insisted on her views about Palestine ,attacked the Israeli lobby and was tearful about what Obama said about her after her remarks. “
Of course she fired back at him later when she wondered about the people who are killed because of Bush and Obama”
You can listen to the whole interview below.
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| Helen's plate on her old seat |
For dear American readers , do not you think that the White house press room has lost a powerful voice like her ?? The woman did not attack Judaism from near or far and I think the American constitution that supports and protects freedom of expression stands in her side but of course “You can’t criticize Israel” plus she got many enemies who waited for this gold moment from a long time, it was like a moment that does not occur except after 100 years.
The interview as expected is causing a stir in the States with awful bad remarks about old Lebanese Arab leftist witch or the wicked witch of the East as once Bill O’Reilly once described her in Fox Channel.
God bless you our dear Helen.
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Hi Z, for those readers like me who don't want the watch the whole thirty-five minutes, the dramatic part is found in the 90-second snippet on Jim Treacher's column: Another wrinkle to the Helen Thomas story. The interviewer tells her that Obama said Helen's remarks were "offensive and out of line", and her "retirement was the right decision". Helen is stunned. "He said that though a spokesman?" "Er... He said it on the Today Show" he tells her as gently as he can. And she starts sniffling.
ReplyDeleteThe words of truth are clearly becoming unbearable for those running our World. Helen's story isnt so different from Eissa's, them getting banned serves the same ends, stopping ppl from telling the truth and informing others. And we the ppl are so weak or unwilling to stand up for those who couldnt bare this situation. What a shame
ReplyDeleteI think the American constitution that supports and protects freedom of expression stands in her side
ReplyDeleteIt has been once said here by Jason. So once again, what part of the constitution protects her?
I guess there is no such a part.
@John, Helen exercised her constitutional right to free speech fully. She was not arrested, charged, tried or imprisoned for her speech. In fact, her own free speech rights are much greater than the average American's: The first amendment does not guarantee an audience. But because of her journalistic position she was, and remains to this day, certain to be heard no matter how stupid her words. And of course she can, and does, continue to exercise her right to flaunt her senility as the latest video showed.
ReplyDeleteOh the first amendment does protect her freedom of speech, but not her job! Too many ignorant people confuse them both.
ReplyDeleteSayed Kotb hit the nail on the head. The distinction is not unique to the United States. I bet there is not a country in the world that guarantees the right to publicly embarrass your employer without being fired.
ReplyDelete@Jason: if she came out to say nice words about Israel and demanded the Palestinians to leave to another place, she wouldnt have been fired right?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the use of freedom of speech when I could loose my job for stating my opinion? You considered what she said as wrong and the words of an old lady w/o even thinking for a minute where are here words coming from. Fact: Israel was founded by Western Jews who acted like gangs and were illegal immigrants. Solution, a real one not a sham one for those who took whats not theirs to realise how wrong this was and to be part of ONE palestine. Any other solution is only talks for the media and would lead to nothing.
@Sayed Kotb: of course the likes of you would support making someone loose his job for not being a loyal dog to the administration and appraise their every doing even when its wrong and detrimental to their ppl.
How come no one gets fired for being a bigot against Muslims?
ReplyDeleteThe Canadian.
@Anonymous 01:39:00 AM,
ReplyDelete"if she came out to say nice words about Israel and demanded the Palestinians to leave to another place, she wouldnt have been fired right?"
If she had said the Gazans should get the hell to Egypt and the West Bankers should get the hell to Jordan then she would have been fired, yes.
"What is the use of freedom of speech when I could loose my job for stating my opinion?"
The use is to keep the government from opressing you.
Suppose you owned a Cairo grocery and your employee who runs the cash register went on YouTube and said he doesn't like, say, Coptic customers, and he wishes they would stay the f**k out of the store. You shouldn't be able to fire him, though, right? Because it's free speech? He's just stating his opinion.
"Israel was founded by Western Jews who acted like gangs and were illegal immigrants."
I have sympathy with that position. Many Arabs who lived there before Israel got screwed. But when I look at the big picture I lose much of my sympathy. Jews were ethnically cleansed from all Arab countries including Egypt. I don't see anyone pissing and moaning about it, not Jews and certainly not Arabs. The Grand Mufti of Jeruslaem was a Nazi ally. Historically the Israel/Palestine region has changed hands by force many times. It has been run by Hebrews, Hellenistic Greeks, Persians, Hasmonians, Romans, Byzantines, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatamids, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, Egyptians, Jordanians, English and now by Jews from all over. So it's tough luck for those people who lived there before Israel. It is a recognized country with sovereign rights. You can't conquer it by strapping bombs to your children, you've tried that for years. You can't conquer it with armies, they just defeat you penalize you by taking more land. So get on with your life. Deal with it. Establish a peaceful neighboring country of Palestine. I don't know what else to suggest.
"@Sayed Kotb: of course the likes of you would support making someone loose his job for not being a loyal dog to the administration"
Sayed Katb didn't say Helen should lose her job. He was just explaining that the law doesn't protect her job, and he's exactly right.
@Canadian, please give an example of a person whose anti-Muslim bigotry should have gotten them fired.
ReplyDeleteHow come no one gets fired for being a bigot against Muslims?
ReplyDeleteah that muslim self-victimization ... course people do get fired for criticizing Islam.
People in Western World get even killed by other Muslims for criticizing Islam 8}
MSNBC, NBC, CNN, and Fox News repeatedly give islamphobes such as Pamela Geller, Daniel Pipes, Steven Emerson, David Horowitz, Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney ... a platform to attack Islam on their airwaves. For example Geller has claimed "Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam" and offered rhetorical support to Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic for his genocide of Muslims.
ReplyDeleteRadio Show host Michael Savage whose show Savage Nation is the third most popular political talk radio show in the US, repeatedly attacks Islam and Muslims to the extent that he has even once called for killing a hundred million Muslims !!!!!!!
Pat Robertson on his program 700 club on CBN claims Islam is a “bloody, brutal type of religion” whose followers only “deal with history and the truth with violence” and “don’t understand what reasoned dialogue is”.
Fox News personality Sean Hannity drew a parallel between Islam and Nazism, asking a guest on his show, “Would you have allowed him to choose, you know, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible?”
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly compared a University of South Carolina assignment asking incoming freshmen to read a book called Approaching the Quran: The Early Revelations to teaching Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1941.
None of the above examples have lost their jobs because of their demonization of an entire religion and incitement of hate crimes against American Muslims.
@Anon 10/15/2010 10:27:00 PM
ReplyDeleteThank you for answering John's and Jason's questions.
The Canadian.
Meh. Not one reference do you give.
ReplyDeleteSo you think all those people should be fired. Their employers apparently disagree with you based upon business considerations. It is fitting that the employers make that decision. Not me. Not the government. And certainly not you, a hostile anonymous alien commenting on a blog from a dusty courtyard in some God-forsaken MENA dictatorship.
This is what free speech is for. The government, i.e., the Obama administration, agrees with you. They would love all the people you mention to be silenced, and would prosecute them if they could. You may think that would be delightful. When the next administration started locking up the Robert Fisks of the world you might feel different.
@Jason
ReplyDelete'Their employers apparently disagree with you based upon business considerations'
The key word is BUSINESS CONSIDERATIONS.
Jews are only two percent of your nation's population yet comprise eleven percent of what is defined as the nation's elite. However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top ranking civil servants.
Today, though barely two percent of the nation's population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation's largest newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper, the New York Times ... The role and influence of Jews in American politics is equally marked.
I admire their intelligence and success but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude why a anti-Muslim bigot does not get fired.
The Canadian.
@Canadian, you may be letting your Jewphobia get in the way of your logic. Jews are disproportionately represented in the top corporate echelons because they are good a making decisions that maximize profit. That's what good CEOs (of any religion) do. If they don't do that the shareholders fire them. CEOs whose objective is, say, incitement against Muslims (or any group) or indeed whose objective is anything but profits do not survive the Darwinian struggle to achieve CEO status.
ReplyDeleteYou say "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude why a anti-Muslim bigot does not get fired." implying it's because of the Jewishness of the CEOs. No, you have it exactly backwards: It's because of the CEO-ness of the Jews.
To put it another way. Those Jewish CEOs don't give a rat's ass about Muslims, Christians, or for that matter Jews. All they care about is money.
And that is exactly as it should be. Suppose you were a shareholder. Would you hire the CEO who wants to pursue a religious vendetta? Or the one who wants to make you a lot of money. Your choice.
Why is it when we are cornered in a political conversation like clockwork we SCREAM ZA JOOOOZ?
ReplyDeletePlease stop it with your bigotry anon it's effing embarrassing! You are so far off topic I think you're near the Aleutians by now!
1) For every Limbaugh we have an Ahmed Mansour!
2) Cutting and pasting swill off of electronic intifada does not constitute civil discourse.
3) Once and for all Thomas, Nasar and Sanchez all exercised their fist amendment rights, none were placed in prison/gagged for their outlandish acts/remarks!
Anon the venom is spewed both ways, the only difference is Pipes does not hide behind a difficult semitic language like Mansour or Sheik Karadawy!
ANON HEERZA little tip, calling me a dog and resorting to acerbic tin-foil-hat logic is not a way to engage people in conversation.
Tx for the cogent arguments Jason!
@Jason
ReplyDeleteJewphobia,blurred logic????
Are you fabricating my profile or putting words in my mouth?
As an executive, I have dealt with numerous CEO's (some were brilliant Jews)over the years, thus I have some knowledge how certain things work behind closed boardroom doors 'mon cher ami'.
To date, I have yet to come across a CEO who base their decisions on religion. We all work together to benefit our organizations regardless of our religion, color or race.
Money has no religion.
Sometimes, we will base our decisions to benefit 'common networking interests' to which it may seem to be inspired by faith.
Your concept of CEO's basing everything on making money is incorrect because the CEO's I know are socially responsible, honest hard working people who base their decisions on ethics, the well being of their shareholders, company, employees, society, environment and many other positive elements that do not necessarily involve money.
Your knowledge of CEO'S profile seem to be derived from Hollywood and a few bad apples who gave the financial world a black eye.
Jason, surely you are not a rocket scientist, so be a good boy and continue flipping my burgers.
The Canadian.
PLO bestows journalism award on Helen Thomas
ReplyDelete