Remember Helen Thomas?

Jagos · 11-20-2010, 10:50 PM

Well, she's here to say tell her side of the story.

Link

Some perspective, The Real News Network doesn't take ad money. They're pretty clear in their mission to try to focus on being an actual news channel, showing what can be done without pissing off people who have ad money.

In regards to the interview, it seems a lot more balanced than what Fox (HAHHAHAHAHA) or CNN would run with. I got a lot more into what she was saying and how she felt than the text that showed her as an evil woman of 80+. She does make some good points and the interviewer allowed her to explain without jumping to conclusions.

It's 13 minutes long, but I think the interview is well worth it to listen to. If nothing else, TRNN is really becoming a great source of news that isn't a horrible bastard child of CNN and Fox.

BigGator5 · 11-21-2010, 05:53 AM

Jagos, do you honestly think what she said was in any way ok? If so, why?

Meister · 11-21-2010, 06:09 AM

I don't remember Helen Thomas, can you give a brief rundown on who she is and what everyone else's side of the story is in the OP?

e: ah yes, right, that one. Thanks.

greed · 11-21-2010, 06:23 AM

Helen Thomas was a long, long serving and highly respected member of the Whitehouse Press Corps, who got sidelined during the Bush administration for not playing ball. Then she made a gaffe during an interview with some journalist that basically bad mouthed Israel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helen Thomas's Interview courtesy of Wikipedia

Nesenoff: Any comments on Israel? We're asking everybody today, any comments on Israel?

Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.

Nesenoff: Oooh. Any better comments on Israel?

Thomas: Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German, it's not Poland ...

Nesenoff: So where should they go, what should they do?

Thomas: They go home.

Nesenoff: Where's the home?

Thomas: Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else[55]

Nesenoff: So you're saying the Jews go back to Poland and Germany?

Thomas: And America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries? See?
�May 27, 2010, RabbiLive.com [50]

This got her kicked out of the press corps and kind of ostracised. Honestly it seems like kind of an overreaction it's her personal opinion she's a journalist not a politician and unlike say those in Fox News her views on Israel are hardly likely to colour much of her reporting.

BigGator5 · 11-21-2010, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greed

This got her kicked out of the press corps and kind of ostracised.

And rightly so. You don't make racist statements like that and not be ostracised. It would be like me telling Helen Thomas to go back to Lebanon.

Jagos · 11-21-2010, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigGator5

Jagos, do you honestly think what she said was in any way ok? If so, why?

No, I don't think it was all ok in any way. But it seems to be a fair shot to give her a chance to speak and see what she has to say on the subject.

Her main parts were to get Israel out of the Gaza strip and stop people persecuting her for supposedly being anti-Semitic when she has friends and family in Israel.

That seems to be a good place to start seeing what her viewpoint is.

-Edit- Honestly, I'm not seeing how that's racist. She wanted the Gaza strip occupation to stop. If we look at the facts, Israel is being supplied by the US and Britain, along with a massive oppression of the people there. They've built walls, they've bulldozed houses, and yet all of this is to say she can't have an opinion that people don't have to do just that?

Azisien · 11-21-2010, 12:36 PM

Wanting Israel to halt its murder and brutality is a completely defensible position, however, telling any group of people, and particularly a group of people that have lived in a place long enough to have whole generations born there, to "go back to X," pretty much deserves whatever flak it gets.

Marc v4.0 · 11-21-2010, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigGator5

It would be like me telling Helen Thomas to go back to Lebanon.

She isn't engaged in the violent occupation and take-over of another nation's lands just because "Our god said this is ours".

That stopped being a free excuse to take places over a hell of a long time ago. It is not racist to be opposed to that just because someone else says you are.

Quote:

However, telling any group of people, and particularly a group of people that have lived in a place long enough to have whole generations born there, to "go back to X," pretty much deserves whatever flak it gets.

That too, but only to an extent. It deserves some flak, yes, but perhaps not all the flak a statement like that will generate.

Gregness · 11-21-2010, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigGator5

And rightly so. You don't make racist statements like that and not be ostracised. It would be like me telling Helen Thomas to go back to Lebanon.

Err, racist? Really? I mean, it's dumb certainly, but I'm not seeing racist. And really she's right to a certain degree anyway. Azisien brought up that whole generations of Israelis have been born there, but on the other side, there are palestinians alive right now who remember there not even BEING an Israel. Really the best solution (in a knee-jerk way associated with not being an expert on the diplomatic situation of the region) is for the Israelis to stop being dicks with the whole settlement shenanigans and just take the territory they've got and leave the palestinians to theirs.

POS Industries · 11-21-2010, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregness

there are palestinians alive right now who remember there not even BEING an Israel.

Well, they remember it being there, it's just that back then it was that place that their families lived in for countless generations before one day being forcibly removed by US and British troops and given a choice of living in a refugee camp or being a nationless nomad that no one will allow in their borders.

What Thomas said was tactless, but she's also someone who was alive before Israel was formed, whose parents homeland borders Israel (and has been twice invaded by it), and something that wasn't right in 1948 doesn't magically become right after you birth a couple generations there. All it does is make the alternative (giving the land back to Palestine) wrong, too.

But getting mad at over sixty years worth of consistently horrible and destabilizing foreign policy isn't anti-Semitic, and insisting that it is is the blanket that Israel's been hiding behind since day one. It doesn't matter what religion they are, they are doing shitty things and they need to knock it off.

11-20-2010, 10:50 PM	#1
Jagos FRONT KICK OF DOOM! Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Howdy pardner... Posts: 6,399	Remember Helen Thomas? Well, she's here to say tell her side of the story. Link Some perspective, The Real News Network doesn't take ad money. They're pretty clear in their mission to try to focus on being an actual news channel, showing what can be done without pissing off people who have ad money. In regards to the interview, it seems a lot more balanced than what Fox (HAHHAHAHAHA) or CNN would run with. I got a lot more into what she was saying and how she felt than the text that showed her as an evil woman of 80+. She does make some good points and the interviewer allowed her to explain without jumping to conclusions. It's 13 minutes long, but I think the interview is well worth it to listen to. If nothing else, TRNN is really becoming a great source of news that isn't a horrible bastard child of CNN and Fox. __________________ Copyright musings World ramblings Scifi stories

11-21-2010, 06:09 AM	#3
Meister Pure joy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Germany Posts: 10,689	I don't remember Helen Thomas, can you give a brief rundown on who she is and what everyone else's side of the story is in the OP? e: ah yes, right, that one. Thanks.

11-21-2010, 12:36 PM	#7
Azisien wat Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,177	Wanting Israel to halt its murder and brutality is a completely defensible position, however, telling any group of people, and particularly a group of people that have lived in a place long enough to have whole generations born there, to "go back to X," pretty much deserves whatever flak it gets.