Originally Posted By Labuda <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/us/helen-thomas-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1">http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/...pt=hp_t1</a> I loved watching her ask tough questions. Pity she exercised her free speech about the Middle East, though. Must've been rough to see her career go up in flames like that after SO many years.
Originally Posted By Labuda <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/us/helen-thomas-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1">http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/...pt=hp_t1</a> I loved watching her ask tough questions. Pity she exercised her free speech about the Middle East, though. Must've been rough to see her career go up in flames like that after SO many years.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Live by the sword, die by the sword...I think most Americans realize you don't have free speech anymore as any comments you make will see you blasted by those with opposing view points..
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I think most Americans realize you don't have free speech anymore as any comments you make will see you blasted by those with opposing view points<< Somebody around here **REALLY** doesn't get this whole "free speech" thing.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Somebody around here **REALLY** doesn't get this whole "free speech" thing.<< I get it but it only works for one political party...
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Case in point, when Treyvon Martin used the word cracker and everyone gives him a free pass... But heaven forbid Paula Dean uses the N Word...
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Let's try to remember that a). Trayvon Martin is dead and thus does tend to get a pass (from most people, anyway); b). The "n word" has been used by the larger and more powerful group to oppress and/or keep the smaller group "in its place" for centuries; the "c word" is more a response to that oppression. Many white people do not seem to grasp this concept, or the difference between individual and institutional racism; c). Helen Thomas' comments on the middle east transcend political parties - many people from both parties agreed with her comments on Israel vis a vis the Palestinians, and many from both parties disagreed with it, so the "it only works for one political party" doesn't make sense here (or in general despite the right's fever fantasies that they are now oppressed); d). What mawnck was getting at is that the doctrine of free speech protects you from the government - you can say the President is a poopy head and unlike many other countries you can't be jailed for it. It does not protect you from consequences in the private world of your speech. Many people also do not seem to understand this concept.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Going back to Ms. Thomas, I have to be honest here...I thought she had gone over the edge many years before this happened. Her questions were embarrassing, to her not to the questioned. She should have retired a decade before she did. Not because of age, but because of mental stability. JMHO!
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Treyvon Martin used the word cracker and everyone gives him a free pass... But heaven forbid Paula Dean uses the N Word...<< Is it warm and comfortable in that bubble?
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder PLEASE no Trayvon Martin in this thread about Helen Thomas.
Originally Posted By ecdc Shouldn't people who distrust government love journalists? And yet, we get "live by the sword, die by the sword." Do conservatives like...anything? Or do they just pine for the America that never existed...the 1950s fake one that they see in Leave it to Beaver, where women knew their place and black men didn't have the nerve to talk about what it was like to be a black man?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Live by the sword, die by the sword...I think most Americans realize you don't have free speech anymore as any comments you make will see you blasted by those with opposing view points.. >>> I have a sneaking suspicion that there's a radio speaker somewhere nearby that is practicing plenty of free speech.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Or do they just pine for the America that never existed...the 1950s fake one that they see in Leave it to Beaver, where women knew their place and black men didn't have the nerve to talk about what it was like to be a black man?>> Pleasantville. Conservatives like William are pining for Pleasantville.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Case in point, when Treyvon Martin used the word cracker and everyone gives him a free pass... But heaven forbid Paula Dean uses the N Word..." 1. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech 2. Context. These aren't equivalent. Not even close.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Back OT, we should remember Thomas not for the end of her career, but for the MANY decades before. She was a true pioneer- for years the only woman in the room, literally.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> b). The "n word" has been used by the larger and more powerful group to oppress and/or keep the smaller group "in its place" for centuries; the "c word" is more a response to that oppression. Many white people do not seem to grasp this concept, or the difference between individual and institutional racism; << Just out of curiosity, do you think it's unethical (or even possible) for a member of an oppressed group to be "racist" against the dominant group?
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/us/helen-thomas-obit/">http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/...as-obit/</a> From the link: Thomas, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, was born in Winchester, Kentucky, on August 4, 1920. She was one of nine children. Thomas was raised in Detroit, where she attended Wayne State University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1942. In October 1971, Thomas married Douglas Cornell; he died in 1982. She wrote three books: "Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times" (1999); "Thanks for the Memories Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House" (2002); and "Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How it Has Failed the Public" (2006). In describing her job, Thomas once said, "I've never covered the president in any way other than that he is ultimately responsible." Along the way, she broke some barriers by becoming the first female president of the prestigious White House Correspondents' Association and Washington's Gridiron Club. "I hope there are many women following me right in this same spot," she said. Well into her 80s, she was a mentor to many young journalists. Thomas left UPI in May 2000, when the wire service was sold to a company controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. Two months later, Hearst News Service hired her as a syndicated columnist, and she returned to the White House for fodder for her columns. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recalled Thomas' "tough-minded dedication." "Helen was a pioneering journalist who, while adding more than her share of cracks to the glass ceiling, never failed to bring intensity and tenacity to her White House beat," the Clintons said in a statement. "... Her work was extraordinary because of her intelligence, her lively spirit and great sense of humor, and most importantly her commitment to the role of a strong press in a healthy democracy." Colleagues remember her as a genuinely fearless woman who asked the toughest questions of presidents, no matter their party. In January 2009, as President George Bush was preparing to leave office, Thomas aimed her editorial guns at him and his administration. Among her criticisms: that before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, administration officials ignored "significant early warnings of an imminent strike against the U.S." In a commentary, she slammed Bush for what she considered his failings, including leading the country "into a senseless war against Iraq, a calamity still under way as he leaves office almost six years after the invasion." She considered him "the worst president ever." Thomas embraced the freedoms of a columnist with vigor. "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter," Thomas told an audience at the Massachusetts of Technology (MIT) in late 2002. "Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'" One afternoon in October 2009, she targeted President Barack Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, during the daily briefing. Health care reform was being debated at the time, and Thomas asked Gibbs every day whether a public option would be part of the package. In the back-and-forth that ensued, Thomas said that she already had reached a conclusion but could not get a straight answer from the presidential spokesman. "Then why do you keep asking me?" Gibbs inquired. "Because I want your conscience to bother you," Thomas replied. The room broke into laughter as Gibbs turned red.
