By now if you are a political junkie you know that the Queen of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas, was heard to voice the anti-Semitic sentiment that all the Jews in Israel should “go back to Germany and Poland,” where they came from. So far, the tepid response from the oh, so racially sensitive left and the Old Media has been nothing short of breathtaking.
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But this lack of interest in a racist comment by a high profile member of the media isn’t de rigueur. One must only recall the firestorm that radio/TV guy Don Imus kicked up back in 2007 when he called some African-American basketball players “nappy-headed ho’s.” Imus was immediately excoriated and forced off the air.
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Thomas, however, is being treated with a total lack of concern by the same overly race-conscious media that destroyed Imus. One would think that racism is racism no matter who says it or toward which race, creed, religion or people the evil sentiment is directed. If standing against racism was the goal, one would think that the left and its Old Media buddies would be just as incensed at Helen Thomas wishing a new Holocaust upon the Jews as they were over Don Imus’s using a racial slur against some black basketball players.
But thus far, Helen Thomas is being given a pass while Imus was at the top of the most shrill news coverage starting only hours after he made his on air comment and lasting for at least a week of condemnation.
As to Imus, he made his comments on his morning MSNBC TV show Imus in the Morning on April 4th, 2007. By that evening groups like the left-wing funded Media Matters for America was all over the story. The story was also big news immediately with the major networks and every newspaper in the country each attacking Imus.
Two days later Imus was issuing a formal apology even as the National Association of Black Journalists had demanded his immediate firing.
After a week of uproar CBS fired Imus from his radio show over the comment. Not to be outdone, the next day MSNBC also canceled Imus’ show, the very one on which the comment was aired the week before.
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By comparison we have the Helen Thomas matter. Thomas’ comments were posted by the website RabbiLive.com on June 3. The video of Thomas’ outrageous comments was picked up by Jeff Dunetz next day and thence on to the conservative blogosphere. By June 5, some of the major newspapers as well as Drudge had come upon the video and begun to publicize the story. But there has been no firestorm so far to compare to the Imus case.
Also on June 5, Politico was reporting that the Hearst newspaper chain that employs Thomas was blandly saying that Thomas “in no way reflects our views” on Israel but would not state if any further actions would be taken against the Jew-hating reporter.
But notice the footdragging with the Thomas story compared to that of Imus? Imus was being pilloried only hours after his racist comments on the little-watched MSNBC. But we are at three days and counting and there still isn’t much of a storm of condemnation for Helen Thomas’ wishing all Jews to lose their ancestral home in Israel.
In fact, the left-wing Media Matters has yet to even mention the story. Apparently Media Matters doesn’t mind anti-Semitism.
So what is the difference between how the left and its handmaidens in the Old Media treated Imus and is now treating Thomas?
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One is that Helen Thomas is the queen of the Old Media. They love her like a grandmother despite her hatred for Israel and her support for Palestinian terrorists. She could eat a live kitten on TV and the Old Media would just chuckle and say, “that’s our Helen.”
But besides its love for grandma Thomas is the Old Media’s hatred for the Jews. Few in the Old Media will get too worked up over condemnation of Israel and Thomas’ comments likely seem quite sane to these folks. The Old Media sees no reason to get riled up over Thomas’ attack on Israel.
As to Imus, well he was not one of “them.” He was an irascible white country boy who was always off-color to a degree, and for whom ethnic insult comedy was part of the act. But then he transgressed against the Old Media’s protected racial category,African-Americans, and since then he has largely been rendered satirically impotent — despite a self-abasing apology tour.
In the end, Helen Thomas’ absurd, ahistorical and heartfelt desire to see the Jews chased into the sea is of little interest to the Old Media establishment. Imus’s saying “nappy-headed ho’s” in jest, however, was a transgression that could not be allowed to stand.
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