Helen Thomas
Seems that the Helen Thomas brand is suffering. In her On Faith online column for the Washington Post, Sally Quinn talks about a brand new challenge: the awkwardness of being a Helen Thomas Award winner -- and the even more awkward challenge for Eleanor Clift, who is set to be this year's award winner for the American News Women's Club. Basically Sally resolves the embarrassment by saying that the Helen Thomas she knew is not the Helen Thomas that advised Jews to go back to Poland and Germany.
In related news, Fox News reports that
"Thomas' alma mater, Wayne State University, has already made its decision. The school announced Wednesday that it will keep the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media award, despite what it described as her "wholly inappropriate comments."
Fox also reports that
"the Society of Professional Journalists has not decided what to do with its Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement."
All in all, one suspects that across the Beltway, all those Helen Thomas Awards that used to grace fireplace mantles have now been sent to the basement.
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Re: Helen Thomas
Maybe somebody more deeply connected to the Washington journalism establishment can disabuse me of this, but I find it hard -- no, impossible -- to believe that Important People like Sally Quinn or Eleanor Clift were surprised by Helen Thomas' comments.
Not the Helen they knew? Really? Really?
p%
May '10
Re: Helen Thomas
Maybe this is a Basil Fawlty moment: Just Don't Talk About The War.
We all have friends with whom we avoid certain topics, because we know they will inevitably lead to that awkward moment. People we otherwise like and respect are suddenly revealed to have a deep vein of disreputable crazy, and we face the dilemma of whether to voice disagreement and possibly end the friendship. (In the case of Helen Thomas, who has long struck me as a disturbed and deeply unpleasant person, it's hard to credit why anyone would make such allowances, but I suppose there is no accounting for taste.)
I think this is the same impulse that led so many otherwise sensible people to discount Barack Obama's long connections to people like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. Their social training makes it natural to let the eye slide over that vein of crazy while politely offering up seconds on the veal medallions. Perhaps if we demanded a bit more moral consistency from our friends, we could find the courage to ask the same of the leaders we choose.
May '10
Re: Helen Thomas
What is truly amusing is watching all the beltway reporters act shocked, shocked that the woman who Tony Snow famously said presented the Hezbollah view harbored such sentiments.
I can't stand Eleanor Clift (it's her voice, which cuts through the din on The McLaughlin Group like nails on the chalkboard) and if she has to pull out of this award, I'll be sitting slightly more smugly.
Re: Helen Thomas
I love that the Helen Thomas Awards are the new Razzies.
P.S. I sit smugly every day - but I am delusional.