Who The Hell Elected Helen Thomas?

I know she's yesterday's all that's liberal and a bag of chips when it comes to the WH press corps, but am I the only one thinking, she never asked a single question? She made a speech and put forward her own basically foolish policy calling for UN Peacekeepers? The video link is below.

It's serious business when America is at war. Does it really make sense to allow the reporting process around that to be corrupted because some few journalists seem forever trapped in a walk down memory lane?

And how can American government stand up to al Qaeda if it doesn't have the institutional courage to inform a now mostly irrelevant columnist, or perhaps her employer, that she's not only way out over the line, but she's no longer doing her job and has reached a point where it's time for her to go, making room for one more actual journalist at critical press briefings within the heart of American government?

Much good coverage of the President on Iraq today:

Michelle live blogged the presser

Gateway Pundit has an illustrated post on the war

And check out the video of Helen Thomas via Hot Air

The wiki linked at top says she works for Hearst - forget that she doesn't even do a journalists job any more, when has Hearst, or Helen Thomas ever been elected to anything when it comes to federal government and what gives them the right to have this kind of voice in proposing policy?

Comments

[Dan]

Yeah great. The government should get Helen Thomas fired. Nice thought. Then maybe next they can get your ISP to drop you when you say obnoxious things.

[Dan]

Even worse, she's a "reporter" that can't get her facts straight. But then, if you're not reporting on the atrocities that UN troops perform, how could she possibly know them? The same with passing on anything about the terror support that Saddam had interwoven in the fabric of his reign?

[Letalis]

Helen Thomas should be relegated to that never-ending anti-nuke protest that has been going on at the edge of Lafayette Park since 1982.

[Jonathan]

Not fired, Dan. Just excluded from White House press conferences. She has no constitutional right to be there. I checked to be sure.

[Bob Hawkins]

Why would the White House want to get rid of her? If the MSM wants a bag lady to be their face at Presidential press conferences, why stop them?

[DaveS]

Helen Thomas helps Bush, by reducing the opposition to cartoonish imbeciles. He doesn't have to call on her.

[Kensington]

Jeff Ganon had to go because he likes guys, but Helen Thomas is a venerable institution who must be indulged until she's literally crapping herself. Makes sense!

[Brendan]

God Bless Helen! Right now we've got a president with his head so far up the end of his alimentary canal that he's like a giant "make war on me" sign for terrorists everywhere. BRING IT ON, Baby!

[Keath]

I saw this and thought the same thing - WTF is this reporter doing giving speeches during a presidential press conference? It is not the press's place - in any way, shape or fashion - to play the role of "instant opposition" at White House press briefings. They're there to ASK QUESTIONS on behalf of the public and report the president's answers. Nothing more.

[BD]

Helen's an irrelevant crank.

The kind of person who's even looking at the video (or who knows who Helen Thomas is, for that matter) knows what what he/she thinks about Iraq. Anyone who doesn't is more likely to be put off by Helen than persuaded.

[Ted B.]

I saw her live this morning. It's an example of the poor standards the WH Press Corps sets amongst itself policing itself. Does she even represent any wire-service or news outlet, other than herself? I guess it the price we as a Democracy pay for attempting to exercise a free-press...but it's not pretty or logical.

[Robes]

"Who The Hell Elected Helen Thomas?"

As I recall it was the White House press corp. What else do you need to know about the MSM?

[Craig Mc]

I think they should keep Helen Thomas. They should also get some other crazy cat-ladies to spout incoherent rants before and after hers so we all know it's comic relief time.

[Just Some Guy]

"Yeah great. The government should get Helen Thomas fired. Nice thought. Then maybe next they can get your ISP to drop you when you say obnoxious things.

Posted by: Dan | Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 07:52 PM"

This is getting really old, Dan. Let's see whether you can understand it this time: Helen Thomas has a privileged seat as a member of the White House press corps. There aren't enough seats to go to everyone who wants them-- otherwise every Presidential press appearance would have to take place in a stadium, and the President wouldn't bother with questions, lest he/she sacrifice other job duties. Dan Riehl, on the other hand, has a private forum.

I presume you understand this and that you're playing stupid.

[Ray]

She's not a reporter.
She's a columnist.

I don't think there are any other columnists as a member of the WH press corps.
She needs to have her ticket pulled.

[Jacques]

I'm not sure which vowel makes the most sense of this encounter. Is she a fool? or Bush's foil? Perhaps both.

With a little patience, one does get to see the alternatives laid out pretty clearly, and the president himself answered patiently and pointedly.

[Pesky]

She an insufferable old windbag.

[Lightnin' Hopkins]

Brendan:

There are terrorists? Besides Bush? In more than one place? You should alert Keith Oberfuhrer immediately! He will want share this revelation with his other nine viewers. Well, at least we know for sure that the root of all violence (Whew! I almost typed 'evil' there) in this world is W. and his "cronies". Stolen elections, imperialist greed, chilling of dissent, Karl Rove's weather machine - there's no end to it. Hell, they're probably monitoring your activities right now. Those bastards!

[Assistant Village Idiot]

The arrogance of any person or group usually comes on gradually, until it is swollen to comic proportions. Compare, for example, to young athletes, re-elected politicians, and public figures who do not attend any situation in which they might be challenged (Hillary Clinton, Bill McKibben, Nina Totenberg). When you surround yourself with sycophants for years, you come to believe them. Helen Thomas is a cartoon now because she was allowed to be a gasbag ten years ago and a fool ten years before that. These things get worse, not better.

[Mark]

Helen needs to have her Press Pass revoked, and have her spot given to Michael Yon. He's certainly doing a better job of being a reporter than Helen is.

[Dan]

Perhaps I am playing stupid. My only point is that the last thing the government should be involved in is deciding who sits in the white house press briefings (assuming background checks, etc.). If Hearst or UPI or whomever she works for wants to fire her or get her out of there, fine. But what the hell business is it of the government? And do we really want an administration that boots reporters for being biased or asking stupid questions? I think that's everyone else's job, and specifically not the government's.

[McCarroll]

Helen Thomas is senile. Why in hell doesn't she just do everybody a favor and die of old age?

[Dave Hardy]

She's about 120 years old, and so senile dementia is long overdue. Probably thinks Dick Nixon is still President, and that the UN is a real organization, and that when her staff talks about Pampering her they are referring to treating her with great care.

[Helen Thomas]

Gaakk Ackkk ackk argghh arghhh ackk akcc ufffff arggg uckk gaack.

[Kensington]

It's probably a good thing that Helen doesn't actually ask questions. If Bush got one wrong, wouldn't she have the right to drag him under a bridge and eat him?

[Cincinnatus]

Dan Rather wrecked his career on Bush. But it might not have happened that way, it was only luck that someone as passive as Bush had won out. His current opponents are just as clumsy and dishonest as Rather was. Bush is obligated to fight back. He could thoroughly humiliate them on live tv with "just the facts" ordinary public record. If blogs can do it, then Tony Snow with a powerpoint sure can. They're aggressive to the point of dishonesty, and it's ridiculous for the White House to pretend otherwise.

Also, aside from the rancor... a press conference is about !asking questions! I don't think revoking passes for a few months on long winded reporter is some slippery slope to fascism. Give them the Alex Trebec treatment and in a week they'll remember when and where not to orally editorialize.
I guess the spin won't be live, it'll be taped ... sigh.

[Brown Line]

Sorry to disagree, but it's not the government's job to fire any member of the press.

On the other hand, the establishment press is afforded certain privileges, such as seats in the presidential press conferences, because it supposedly is best equipped to act as a conduit of information to the public. When the establishment press ceases to be a conduit - when it begins to substitute its own message for the information it should be carrying - then it ceases to fulfill its role in public life. And some other conduit should be used.

William F. Buckley once said that he'd rather be governed by 100 people chosen at random from the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. To judge from the performance of Thomas and her fellow credentialed windbags of the press corps, I think the public would be better informed if those presidential press conferences were filled with 100 bloggers chosen at random, instead of by the establishment media.

[Billy Hank]

If attendance at WH press briefings was limited to actual working journalists, it would be thinly attended. What I've seen is mostly posturing fools primping for the camera. More kabuki than journalism.

[Pink Pig]

You raise a very interesting point. Exactly why is it that the mainstream media can claim to be the fourth branch of government when there is no mention in the Constitution of a fourth branch of government? It takes little effort to see that historically, invidious greedy powermongers have often simply asserted their power to dictate, when there is nothing to substantiate it, and it has often worked for them because nobody stands up to tell them to go shove it. We have had over two hundred luxurious years in America when it simply didn't matter that a few self-anointed would-be tyrants tried this, because our basic system operates so slowly and cautiously that radical change of this nature simply couldn't happen. But that is not to say it will always be so. As a rational precautionary measure, we should tell them to shut up. We like this country just the way it is, and their prescriptions for our future are unacceptable to us.

[Tantor]

Helen Thomas should be kept in the White House press corps in perpetuity. She is an unreformed radical loony lefty who doesn't care who knows it. Nothing makes the liberals look so bad than such unhinged characters spouting their nonsense. Nothing makes journalists look so unprofessional and partisan as Helen Thomas unplugged.

I say we should give her a seat in the front row of the press center with her name on it. Put a spotlight on her and her crazy aunt in the attic antics. When she dies, we should stuff her and sit her back in her seat to remind everyone that the press are biased lefties and have always been so.

After all, if you replace Helen Thomas, you'll just get a journalist who is more slick in his bias and harder to unmask.

[chris]

Hey, if Jeff Gannon can get press credentials... You cons sure love your hookers, huh?

[Dark Jethro]

"Hey, if Jeff Gannon can get press credentials... You cons sure love your hookers, huh?"

Well, speaking as a conservative, I prefer to pay honestly for services rendered with my own money.

I expect you prefer to steal it under false pretenses?

And what does a conservative's personal preferences of payment for services rendered have to do with Helen Thomas being past her expiration date?

[Fred Beloit]

If I were President, hahahahahahaha, I would have said, in a compassionate voice of course, "Ms Thomas, you have just made a speech at what is supposed to be a Presidential White House press conference. In the past you have also made speeches but followed them up with questions. I am the only one here whom the Electoral College has given temporary authority to live here, work here, and make speeches here. Journalists are invited by me to listen to the speeches and ask questions of me afterward, not make, if you will, counter-speeches. After today you will not be admitted to this activity. On behalf of the Administration, I thank you for your previous contributions as a journalist in the United States. Now, are there more questions?"

[seekeronos]

I reckon she was around making speeches during T.R. Roosevelt's administration.