Helen Thomas’ Inexcusable Bigotry

Wayne Besen June 07, 2010

Helen Thomas is usually a fine reporter. But, this time she revealed an ugly bias. To suggest Jews leave their homes in Israel and go back to Poland and Germany turns my stomach and makes my skin crawl. Her words were bigoted, insensitive, profoundly ignorant, and painful to all Jews who had to flee such places.

It is a good start that she has apologized for her remarks — but it is difficult to believe that she is sincere. Thomas has damaged her legacy and it is a stain on her overall body of work. She ought to be ashamed of herself.

Helen Thomas

About the Author

Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

- Facebook

10 Comments

Bruce June 7, 2010 at 12:45 pm -

It is amazing that she can make such statements and “apologize” and keep her job. Should she have said a comperable statement about Blacks for example she would have correctily been led to the door – never to be heard from again. There is an unfortunate double standard here. Reminds me of the old silly song, Oh the catholics hate the protestants …. and the chorus is “and everyone hates the Jews!
Evan Hurst June 7, 2010 at 12:49 pm -

I agree with you on this one, Wayne.

Helen Thomas should lose her job over this.
Wayne Besen June 7, 2010 at 1:05 pm -

I don’t want her to lose her jib. Just no shuffle board until Thursday.
Evan Hurst June 7, 2010 at 1:13 pm -

Well, she has retired anyway.
Michael Airhart June 7, 2010 at 1:36 pm -

Retirement takes her out of the press pool, but it doesn’t really change what she said.

Apologies are cheap. If she didn’t mean it, then I think she should actively support an Israeli-Palestinian peace group. If she did mean it, she shouldn’t apologize.
Daniel June 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm -

I actually don’t think she should apologize. I think she believes what she said in the first place.
Evan Hurst June 7, 2010 at 2:08 pm -

What pisses me off about this is that she’s a scalp the Right has wanted for a long time, and she totally stepped in it on her own.

Idiot.
Gary (NJ) June 7, 2010 at 2:09 pm -

Someone should tell her that Native Americans are asking all European, African and Asian Americans to return to their ancestral homelands and that we are currently packing her bags. The only thing one might say in her defence is that she’s quite old and they sometimes say ‘crazy’ things. Though I suspect she’s held those views for a long time.
Gary (NJ) June 7, 2010 at 2:10 pm -

oops — defense (it’s ce in the UK)
Evan Hurst June 7, 2010 at 2:13 pm -

But what’s obnoxious about it is that Helen Thomas, this notwithstanding, was one of the only members of the WHPC over the last several decades who was actually worth anything.

That’s why it’s galling that she did this to herself.