Helen Thomas, whether you agreed or disagreed with her, spoke her
mind. She was especially critical, to his face, with George Bush II.
But she lost her privileged place in the White House Press Corp, for a
variety of reasons. Personally I thought the President had been
looking for solid reasons to silence her. When the Reverand Sun
Moon...or whatever his name was...bought the paper Helen worked for,
she quit and later went to work for Hearst Publications. For me,
Hearst represented Yellow Journalism at its ugliest. For years I read
the Seattle PI just so I could get indigestion reading Westbrook
Peglar. He wrote for Hearst, and held a one man crusade against
Eleanor Roosevelt, even after her death. From my biased perch I could
never forgive Helen Thomas for going to work for what I considered the
Fox news of the day.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/25/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wouldn't have heard it, had it not been for Useful Idiots. Matt Taibi andHelen Thomas, whether you agreed or disagreed with her, spoke her
Katie Halpern connected with it and commented on it while it was going on
so
I watched the stream. They thought, given his limitations, he rated a B
plus. I, on the other hand, was horrified. It was obvious to them and to me
that the reporters were pre selected. For the most part, it was a show with
predetermined questions. Only in two cases did reporters step out of line
and ask demanding questions. Biden functions with all kinds of behind the
scenes assistance, drugs and cheat sheets and God knows what else. His
ability to speak with clarity and spontaneity is limited, to say the least.
Everything that he says is, of course, propaganda fashioned to support US
policy and to obscure truth. I do remember a time when presidents were
bombarded with hardball questions by reporters. What happened today was a
mere pretense. It wasn't a real press conference at all. I think the last
honest press conference took place before Helen Thomas was thrown out of
the
White House press corps for angering a president, perhaps Obama, perhaps
Bush. But this travesty that occurred today demonstrates how far from a
Democracy with press freedom, we are.
Miriam