Willful Blindness to Bigotry in the L.A. Times
[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]
Yesterday, our host noted the conspicuous absence in the Los Angeles Times of any mention of the Helen Thomas affair. Today, the paper reports on Thomas’s long overdue retirement:
Helen Thomas, the legendary White House reporter who broke down barriers against female journalists covering politics, will retire after controversial remarks criticized by many as anti-Israel.
“Criticized by many,” says the Times, but not by us. Perhaps they should have remained silent on the matter.
–Jack Dunphy
Well now, at least they said something. They must have dropped the news-wire services to save money. In real news, how’s Kate Gosselin holding up? /s
Jeff S. (b15751) — 6/7/2010 @ 1:11 pmOriginal draft? Probably something like this:
“Helen Thomas, the legendary White House reporter who broke down barriers against female journalists covering politics, will retire after mouth-breathing racist right-wingers who can’t stand the thought of an African-American President entered into an unholy alliance with grubby money-changers who take direction from an apartheid foreign power to complain about very innocuous remarks she made in the hopes of furthering Middle East peace, a life-long ambition of hers to which she was tirelessly devoted.”
JVW (36eb17) — 6/7/2010 @ 1:17 pmBtw, I think I have the perfect send off for Thomas.
An apropos bit of dialogue from Clint Eastwood’s movie “White Hunter, Black Heart.” (note, this is the only awesome moment in the movie, but it is awesome.) Clint, some dude and a pretty woman were having dinner together, when she said pretty much Hitler had the right idea about the jews. The dude reveals he is Jewish and she keeps going saying anti-semitic stuff anyway. And then Clint pipes up.
“Clint: I would like to tell you a little story, though.
“Woman: I love stories.
“Clint: You mustn’t interrupt now, because you’re too beautiful to interrupt people.
“When l was in London in the early [1940]’s, I was dining one evening at the Savoy with a rather select group of people and sitting next to me was a very beautiful lady, much like yourself.
“Woman: Now you’re pulling my leg.
“Clint: Now, just listen, dear. We were dining and the bombs were falling, we were all talking about Hitler and comparing him with Napoleon, and we were all being really brilliant. And then, suddenly, this beautiful lady, she spoke up and said that was the thing she didn’t mind about Hitler was the way he was treating the Jews.
“Well, we all started arguing with her, of course. Though, mind you, no one at the table was Jewish. But she persisted.
“Are you listening, honey? Mustn’t interrupt Daddy. That’s right. You’re way too beautiful for that.
“Anyway, she went on to say that that’s how she felt about it, that if she had her way, she would kill them all, burn them in ovens, like Hitler.
“Well, we all sat there in silence.
“Then finally, l leaned over to her and l said, ‘Madam, l have dined with some of the ugliest goddamn bitches in my time. And l have dined with some of the goddamndest ugly bitches in this world. But you, my dear, are the ugliest bitch of them all.’
“Anyway, she got up to leave and she tripped over a chair and fell on the floor. And we all just sat there. No one raised a hand to help her. And finally when she picked herself up, I said to her one more time: ‘You, my dear, are the ugliest goddamn bitch l have ever dined with.’
“Well, you know what happened? The very next day, she reported me to the American Embassy. And they brought me in for reprimand. And then when they investigated it they found out that she was a German agent. And they locked her up.
“Isn’t that amazing?
“Woman: Why did you tell me that story?
“Clint: I don’t know. It wasn’t because l thought you were a German agent, honey. But I was tempted tonight to say the very same thing to you.
“I didn’t want you to think I had never said it before.
“You, madam, are the…
“Well, you know the rest.”
To Helen Thomas. You, madam are the ugliest… ah, well you know the rest.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/7/2010 @ 1:45 pmYet again, we see a major newspaper reporting on the consequences of a controversy that they did not report upon in the first place.
That’s just such a huge indication of their irrelevance to the transmission of news.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/7/2010 @ 2:18 pmComment by SPQR — 6/7/2010 @ 2:18 pm
They actually put news in the LAT?
Who knew?
There’s no izvestia in Pravda, and there’s no pravda in Izvestia!
AD - RtR/OS! (f11dd4) — 6/7/2010 @ 3:16 pmDamn, AD, I’m old enough to know what that means …
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/7/2010 @ 3:22 pmWell WE know how the LA Times “feels” about the Joooooooos because they have yet to release the tape of Obama loving him some Rashid Khalidi who like Thomas wants the Joooooos to go back to the ovens!
JadedByPolitics (1f19fe) — 6/7/2010 @ 3:57 pmThey are such clueless ninnies. I just had an amazing exchange of e-mails with George Skelton about Reagan and Skelton’s piece today that Reagan couldn’t win a Republican primary.
He really has no idea.
Mike K (8df289) — 6/7/2010 @ 4:38 pmmy post there, currently in “moderation” limbo [edited per request. –Stashiu]:
its typical that the left claims this is a case of the suppression of speech, when it is anything but. Helen was free to speak as she did, and, like all persons, public or private, she gets to deal with the consequences of her act.
what the left, and most children these days, (but i repeat myself) fail to recognize, or more accurately, don’t wish to acknowledge, is that ALL actions have consequences. the world they wish they lived in is one where people are free to as they will, with no strings or reactions to their acts, unless, of course, the act in question is committed by someone they oppose: then and only then should there be negatives for a particular action.
compare and contrast the coverage by the MFM and the response of the usual suspects to Don Imus a few years back when he ran his mouth. “Hue! Cry! Rage!” Helen Thomas, OTOH, urges the Jews be thrown out of their historical, Biblical homeland, where they have lived since before even Helen’s birth, if only by a few years. its not their fault that King Herod didn’t invite Helen to the Senior Prom, or that she has nursed a grudge ever since.
Helen is nothing more than a nasty anti-Semitic bigot, as are many of the frothing at the mouth defenders i read in the comments here. its sad that bigotry is still so prevalent in our culture, especially amongst the self-anointed “elite”.
PS to the head line writer: her remarks were “anti-Semitic” not “Israel”, but i understand the Times has an image to protect, and you have to keep your j*b.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 6/7/2010 @ 4:46 pmbesides, integrity is not really a quality the media looks for these days, so you’ll likely go far.
I’m more concerned about that dinner Obama shared with Rashid Khalidi and those other palestinian supporters. You know the event that Obama attended and spoke at and that the LATimes will NOT release the tape. I wonder what sort of remarks he applauded and who he hugged and air-kissed that evening. Helen Thomas is a nasty old reporter, but Obama is president and we should be more interested in his views and associations than hers!
CLN (9a80db) — 6/7/2010 @ 4:54 pmLooking forward to your asking me if I want gravy on my fries, o LA Times’ers. Soon now.
ras (88eebb) — 6/7/2010 @ 4:55 pmI emailed the LAT Readers Rep this weekend to ask why they had not reported on this. Here is the reply I received, and this is the story she refers to – in all it’s comprehensive glory.
Thank you for your e-mail. There is a story about Helen Thomas, her remarks and her resignation planned for tomorrow’s front page.
Best,
Deirdre Edgar
Dana (1e5ad4) — 6/7/2010 @ 4:55 pmReaders’ representative
Los Angeles Times
http://latimes.com/readers
Twitter: @LATreadersrep
Perhaps they should have remained silent, but then again, it’ good to have a written record of their willful blindness to bigotry – hence revealing their own collective bigotry…
Dana (1e5ad4) — 6/7/2010 @ 4:57 pmBtw, in other news, the LA Times actually manages to break a little news. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/rahm-emanuel-bp-gul-oil-spill.html
A.W. (f97997) — 6/7/2010 @ 5:26 pmThis seems like an easy cover. Fire up the base, inject some early GOTV strategy at the expense of an 89-year old stenographer, juice the neo-left Gazamania and keep Obama far from the madding crowd.
That tape of Barack needs to come out.
The photo with the sole of his shoe gets worse every time I see it. He knew. His treatment of Israel is obvious. Who cares about Helen and her well-known bigotry.
And Gibbs lies, saying he didn’t discuss it with TOTUS. So the overall strategy – maybe win back some of the Jewish vote but still push the uber-left with its do-or-die collectivist statist agenda.
“Sometimes I think too much but something’s wrong“
Vermont Neighbor (5b9a87) — 6/7/2010 @ 5:34 pmcontroversial remarks criticized by many as anti-Israel.
Notice the phrasing–which implies that perhaps what Thomas said is defensible and not anti-Israel.
kishnevi (16c0da) — 6/7/2010 @ 5:42 pmWhat ass hats. The dog trainer has sunk to a new low. I used to think that the LA Tymes was maligned wrongly. How wrong I was. Ok they under report but then this. I think share Ms. Anti Semite Thomas bias against the Hebrew people.
S Ballard (d14de5) — 6/7/2010 @ 5:54 pmLos Angeles Times
ColonelHaiku (749d6d) — 6/7/2010 @ 6:05 pmall the news thats fit to print
old bag go bye bye
Elderly grandma
ColonelHaiku (749d6d) — 6/7/2010 @ 6:09 pmsulfur hellfire and brimstone
burnt weenie sandwich
If y’all really believe this, I respectfully suggest you cancel your subscription, or stop buying the paper from the coin boxes; write a letter to Russ Stanton, the editor, saying the paper is far too shitty to continue wasting your time and money on; pick two major LATimes local retail advertisers, and copy them on your letter to Stanton; and then copy the LAT publisher on your letters to Stanton and the two advertisers, copy of THAT letter to the paper’s ad director.
You’ll feel swell.
Kevin Stafford (abdb87) — 6/7/2010 @ 7:52 pmEven the local L.A. KTLA and KABC news won’t show the actual tape. It is described.
It would be on a loop if Rush had said it.
Ed from SFV (f0e1cb) — 6/7/2010 @ 8:10 pmThat’s your L.A. Slimes:
“All the Joos that’re fit to mince”
Icy Texan (6c54f2) — 6/7/2010 @ 8:24 pmIt was a little more than “anti-Israel,” in the normal sense of the word; “Israel did something stupid/wrong/evil/untactful,” is what I think of when I think of the term. But the actual statement was to remove the Jews from what is now Israel.
Did anyone else laugh at the quote? I mean, the Jews should move back to Germany and Poland?
Germany? I heard somewhere, possibly on the internet, that something bad happened in Germany relating to the Jews. I think they raised taxes on them or something, and so the Jews moved out.
I may have been wrong; I think I found Helen’s article:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jew/Classic
–JRM
JRM (65bbfb) — 6/7/2010 @ 10:40 pmAs was pointed out over at Tigerhawk, and contrary to the LAT report, Thomas never mentioned Israel. She talked only about Jews. A subtle difference perhaps, but one that makes her anti-semitism crystal clear.
MTF (eba6ab) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:13 amThat link from A.W. above is pretty interesting, so it will go unreported.
JD (b537f4) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:20 amKevin Stafford is being entirely serious, by the way. I know him and that is not sarcasm.
Patterico (c218bd) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:30 amJack – The New York Times did its best to ignore the story, too, though it did show up on a couple of their blogs yesterday.
Jim Miller (d77521) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:34 amI love how they gloss over her anti-semitism in all of their glowing farewells, and minimize her actions by calling them just controversial.
JD (b537f4) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:52 amI would have led with …
Longitme scrote, virulent anti-semite, and screeching hardcore Leftist “JournoList” Helen Thomas has finally been put out to pasture. Small farm animals protest.
JD (b537f4) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:54 amSeriously, this is part of the Vast Left Wing Hypocrisy we have created in this nation. This shouldn’t be partisan: bigotry is bigotry. Period. And when someone asks about the Jews in Israel, with a camera rolling, and you respond: “They should get the hell out of Palestine…” well, that just reveals you as an antisemitic bigot.
And did I mention the camera rolling? It also makes you stupid, to say something like that.
Eric Blair (e2121c) — 6/8/2010 @ 7:57 amIt’s amazing what the left will do. Adj Dana put a post up on his blog about Thomas. All the left came out and blasted Israel on that post.
John Hitchcock (9e8ad9) — 6/8/2010 @ 8:18 amOnce again the dinosaur media in trying to protect their anti israel leftie hacks, misses the story as it is happening only to have to play catch up. The only news that is going on, with these publications, is the news that they’re not printing timely. And we’re going to have to support these media ignoramuses, because they’re so ‘valuable’ to public debate?
eaglewingz08 (1e4d33) — 6/8/2010 @ 3:10 pmPatrick is right (#26, above) when he says that I was being entirely serious in my original post (#20)–and if a bunch of us did what I respectfully suggest, it would not only feel great, but it would get some attention down on Spring Street.
Kevin Stafford (ff3afb) — 6/8/2010 @ 3:58 pm