Send Flowers To Helen Thomas
By Nicole Belle Friday May 02, 2008 4:30pm
I'm amazed no one has thought of this before. Micah Fitch has created Helen Thomas Deserves Some Flowers to thank the only White House Press Corps member not afraid to ask the tough questions and confront the White House about torture.
In fact, along with all the plaudits that she deserves, I think that she also deserves a "Letter to the Editor" from all of us to our local papers asking WHY is she the ONLY journalist asking the question. Please consider it, for there is no better way to show your support.
Login or Register to post comments.
I always thought that it was the press corps job to send the press secretary from the room in a scurry from the hard-hitting questions. Helen appears to be the only one asking them now.
Bless you, Helen!
Helen, You are one AWESOME woman! LOVE YA!
AWESOME.
Speaking of torture, it's a good thing that the American public wised up to Bush and Cheney, or Helen would not only be in Bush's dog house, she'd be in Dick Cheney's dungeon!
What a simple and brilliant way to show appreciation for this incredible woman.
This is a great two ideas.Flowers and a letter to my editor.Helen is the toughest of the White House press corps.
I love to watch Dana "Dainty" Perino squirm when Helen won`t let her off the hook.
Thanks , Helen for confronting the devils.
How about a Helen Thomas DAY? She has long been one of the unsung heroes(Heroines) of this country's collective voice ,speaking back to power. That she is still a vigilant( although less vocal) voice FOR the people, is a testament to the audacity and tenacity of her integrity. It has been disgraceful how this American treasure has been given short shrift by this P.O.S administration and the MSM media who probably can't SPELL integrity,much less recognize and respect it.
Flowers and a letter to the editor are a nice idea. A trophy one of these days.
All due respect to Helen Thomas of course, ( because she does at least challenge the mouthpiece during press conferences), but, lets be perfectly honest: her questions are not particularly good ones. In fact, more often than not, they are weak, usually backed up little else than distrust. Of course, she is right to mistrust this criminal adminstration, yet she still comes un prepared. She asks the kind of questions that can so easily be swatted away by even the least talented Bush minions. For example, she asks things like: " didnt the administration really invade iraq for the oil?" She serves up these questions that can first be answered with an emphatic NO, and then gives someone like Perrino free reign to spout the administration line. I'm glad she is at least challenging the nonsense: it's more than anyone else is doing or has done. But she still does not do a good job; a real reporters job to ask real questions that cannot be dismisssed so easily, one way or the other.
THANK YOU!
Helen remains the bright star in the White House press corps. I was sorry to see the donations are closed, but letters to the editor are a great alternative.
This started on Reddit.com a couple of days ago.
I can't afford flowers, But I would still like to take the time to thank Helen for her service for her country, and I'm sorry she has to work alongside so many spineless twerps.
Thanks Helen for all you do. Old-School reporters are difficult to find these days with media outlets being taken over by large corporations with vested interests in keeping politicians safe from solid reporters.
As for Steve's criticism, I don't find it the least bit valid. It is not Helen's job to ask questions that cannot be dismissed so easily. It is her job - as is all other reporters - to ask pertinent questions whether they can be dismissed or not. The difficulty here is not Helen. The difficulty is she is out there alone with no support from her colleagues - which did not happen five to ten years ago, particularly during the Clinton Administration (which was as it should have been).
Without other reporters following up Helen's inquiry, it is easy for the PressNazi to dismiss Helen's pertinent questions. The PressNazi wouldn't get such a free ride if all the other reporters were doing their job - i.e. asking pertinent questions.
You go Girl!
What's her contact info?
they delivered 20 bouquets April 30th
She rules.
Mister Anderson @ 16:
Helen Thomas
Dr. Biitter Hussein (Mission Accomplished) Matt @ 18:
Oops: helent AT hearstdc DOT com>
I think donating to her favorite charity or creating a journalism scholarship fund with her name on it would be a better way to spend money than flowers--and it would still mean a lot to her. What is she going to do with hundreds or thousands of flower bouquets?
Bless you Helen, you're a real American!
Mister Anderson @ 16:
hthomas@hearstdc.com
Helen today...
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/02/8671/
I wish I had known sooner I would have loved to chip in. Helen is the definition of patriot.
Steve @ 10:
That seems to be a very good job of damning her with faint praise. What you are ignoring is that Ms. Thomas practically begged her colleagues to join her in asking more questions to Dana Perino concerning torture but those pusillanimous White House correspondents declined to do so. On wonders why that quasi liberal Keith Olbermann has not asked his frequent guest Dana Milbank why he did not come to the aid of Ms. Thomas. But that might mean asking the tough questions of journalists that they themselves are hesitant to ask.
If we had living national treasures like the Japanese, Helen Thomas would be one of them.
Contributors to Democratic Underground bought 100 Dozen Roses for Helen Thomas two years ago:
More pictures - Roses for Helen Thomas
Excellent BiAnnual Tradition!!!
very cool!
You are a shining star Helen Thomas!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=115902&title=daily...
And here's pix from this year's event:
Flickr: Helen Thomas and The Flowers
This is a bit old news.... we declared April 25, Helen Thomas (respectable journalist) day. Last week she received over $4,000 worth of flowers.
ht is like a great point guard. she makes great passes, but her colleagues can't make a fuckin lay-up.
Helen is a great journalist of course, however she has been thanked with flowers before. I recall about two years ago she had her office blanketed with tons of flowers for asking tough questions. Sure doesn't mean we should do it again, however. I am pretty sure about this, but maybe my cold medication has thrown me a bit off.....
The things that are talked about in today's news conferences are sick and disturbing. I can't watch them. It just turns my stomach. I hate to say this; but, I miss the days of Clinton denying that he got a blow-job. I miss the days of trading arms for hostages. It seems childlike and innocent in retrospect. Todays news conferences are like this; giggle... giggle... giggle... we didn't torture anybody; we just poured water down their lungs until they spit up blood... that's not torture... besides, their not really people. giggle... giggle... giggle... They are "terrorists". I feel like I am watching a Charles Manson interview. I know the people running are country are like that disturbed little boy on the playground at every school that used to rip wings off of bugs, just top watch them suffer.
About a week ago some folks at Reddit.com sent Helen Thomas $3,000 worth of flowers. Does she really need more flowers? I bet she would prefer a donation in her name to a nice worthy cause.
I got a reply from her! I sent an email last week thanking her for the incredible job she is doing and I was blessed with a reply.
Patriots ask tough questions!
Helen Thomas
c/o Hearst Newspapers
700 12th St. NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
fuck that. period. she doesn't deserve a cookie for doing her job. Instead rather, the fake journalists need to get their collective bells rung for not doing theirs. Take anderson cooper and his army of wannabes out to the shed and begin instating serious requirements for those pursuing the truth. The fcc should force conglomerates like fox and sinclair to name their broadcasts "entertainment", or enact a law similar to Britain that would hold news casters to truthful statements lest they be sued for slander.
Journalists should do what journalists do - without people sending fucking candy-grams or some such because it casts the appearance of undue appreciation by the public. I appreciate the scope and depth of Helen's work, but then again, all she's doing is her job.
She's not the only one to ask tough questions. Raw Story (www.rawstory.com) has a reporter in the White House corps also, and he asks very tough questions; surprisingly, he does not get called on a lot... Only the wimps get to ask questions at this charade of a press conference.
Helen is a jewel. I love it whe she takes Tokyo Perino to the carpet for her propaganda and lies.
I sent her a note last time C&L had a thread on her and she graciously replied the next day. She certainly represents what the media could be if it had any integrity.
myshadow @ 22:
I sent Helen Thomas an email thanking her for holding Perino's hair to the fire a few weeks ago. Nothing long or fancy, just a quick, appreciative note. The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a reply from her thanking me for supporting her.
So for everyone who feels unappreciated when they send emails off to politicians, corporate thugs, etc and get silence as a response, send Helen an email! Even if you don't get a response, I guarantee she'll appreciate kind words. (Lord knows having to see Chimpy face-to-face so often MUST be a contaminating and draining existence...)
Didn't I read a couple of weeks ago that she was involved in Bushes moronic, deranged skit of the Green, Green, Grass of Home? If so this lowers my opinion of her quite a bit.
I sent Helen Thomas an email thanking her for holding Perino’s hair to the fire a few weeks ago. Nothing long or fancy, just a quick, appreciative note. The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a reply from her thanking me for supporting her.
She responds personally to every E-Mail she gets. More than our Representatives do and usually about something that bears no relationship to why we contacted them in the first place.
Helen Thomas is THE true partiot. She is trying to save our country from the facism that all of the CORPORATE MEDIA TOOLS,russert, williams, blitzer, orally, shamitty, gibson etc. etc. etc. that are too gutless to loose a paycheck from the greed driven assholes that run their companies.
CRT @ 42:
Cut her some slack.
Chimpy's been
NeroZero fiddling at "The Green, Green Zone (of Rome)" for seven f*#^ing years now...It's sad that we have to bribe journalists these days to ask tough questions.
ebone @ 37:
What ebone emits when he ends his or her rant by saying that "... all she's doing is her job" is the elephant in the living room and that is her age. For some reason, ebone is reluctant to acknowledge the incredible job this woman is doing a the age of not 47 but an astounding 87 years of age. How many other people does one know that are not simply active but that can still do their job with such acumen and clarity? I would venture to guess extremely few. This column that she had written a few days ago is just one example of her incisive analysis while her less than courageous colleagues who are much younger than Ms. Thomas remain silent and cowed in the press briefing room.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361447_thomas02.html
I would like to add to what I had written at comment #47 that one could look to Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston, who had both succumbed to Alzheimer's disease, when they were in their 80s, as evidence of how easy one's faculties can erode because of advanced age. All the more reason to laud Ms. Thomas for the intelligence and perception that lies behind her columns and questions, which seem to be all too lacking compared to her much younger colleagues of the Fourth Estate.
She is good but Martha Raddatz of ABC also needs some encouragement.
Erroll @ 47:
Awesome chief - please begin sending every Sanitary district worker, public maintenance employee, airline pilot, baggage handler, policeman, and every other person that does their job to their fullest intent a candy-gram.
I posted nothing about Helen's age, because that is not the issue at hand - my point being, which must have been to subtle for you to engage, is that this is where we are after 7 years of Bush co. - that we send flowers to journalists that don't blow sunshine up the Administration's corn hole. Fuck that. Begin holding journalists up to a higher standard.
/end rant.
Damning her with faint praise? Perhaps so. I already admit, she deserves credit- simply by virtue of mere comparison to her limp colleagues- for at least making the effort to challenge the nonsense. And true, it simply is her job. But come on: she once asked Bush: "What was the real reason you invaded Iraq? She asked that as if she expected someone like Bush (or any administration official) to answer honestly and comprehensively. Simply put, it was a dumb question, easily discarded by even the likes of a moron like Bush. That is not an acceptable question from a real reporter, a real journalist. She never brings up past, contradictory dtatements to throw back at an offical to counter a point; she never comes armed with even a shred of evidence- again from documents or again past statements- to back up her hunches; in short, even though she might be the most gutsy of the lot, she still does a poor job of what's most important: asking pointed, intelligent probing questions that get to the heart of CREDIBILITY and ACCOUNTABILITY. Sorry, she doesnt get a pass from me just because everyone else has lowered the bar so significantly.
She deserves a heck of a lot more than flowers. She, above most, deserves a decent America in which to live out the rest of her days. She's been working hard for that, for us, for decades, too often all alone.
Send Helen a Susan B. Anthony dollar---they are both people of courage and character.
You also must remember that Helen was deliberately overlooked by Scott McClellan and Ari Fleisher when they were press secretaries. She has to ask a question quickly because the media hogs must be seen on their broadcast stations looking as if they were doing what they are getting paid to do which is merely showing up and taking whatever shitola the press secretary throws out. Very few of the good ones get called upon or are allowed a follow up. The rest just sit there like sheeple, smiling and nodding and the bullshit flows on. Helen is pushed aside because they recognize she does her job and she had the guts a couple of years ago to declare Pres Stupid the worst president ever. Not a popular stance then but oh so true! Keep up the good work, Helen. You deserve more than flowers.
Best idea I've heard in a while. It's a good idea for us to praise the folks doing the job right as well as calling those who do it poorly to account. It sends a nice message to Helen Thomas, as well as to her colleagues.
ebone @ 50:
"Begin holding journalists up to a higher standard." Well "chief", if you actually bothered to read what I had written, you would have noticed that I singled out Ms. Thomas for doing exactly that while her colleagues, as I had written, "... remain silent and cowed in the press briefing room." Try reacting next time a little more intellectually [if that is possible] while attempting to hold your sarcastic and less than eloquent emotions in check.
In order to order to pacify the people, you must have control of the main source of information that they get. This administration has pretty much ripped the backbone from the msm who are supposed to keep us informed. When the press corp are laughing with Bush instead of asking him follow up questions, you can tell they've been tamed.
Buy her book 'Watchdogs of Democracy' and tell 5 friends to buy her book.
God Blesses US with Helen Thomas. She has more integrity in her little finger than this whole administration!
Helen Thomas, I love you. You are a treasure. Peace, special lady.
I've been reading this with great interest. Helen is a personal friend, had been a colleague of my father's for decades. We get together every time I'm in Washington, and it's never dull. Yes, she'll be 88 this year, but she doesn't dwell on that. Never once in all the years have we discussed age. She's human, of course she appreciates the flowers and all, but she'd appreciate even more an all-out effort to bring some sanity to Washington, if that is still possible.
By the way, if you want to write to her, use the 1850 K Street, 10th floor, address.
She IS very good about replying to emails as long as she doesn't get flooded with them. After all, journalists do write for a living, and she is very down to earth, not at all full of herself for being the icon that she truly is.
I'll add that if any of you are ever in Washington, D.C., you MUST check out her favorite Lebanese restaurant (Helen is Lebanese), Mama Ayesha's just off Connencticut Ave. Even if you don't see Helen there, the place is an experience, both food (out of this world) and decor (Beirut, about 1910).
If you can't send flowers to Helen, send your love.
Give to Helen buy purchasing her book. Send a copy to the White House Press Corps and one to Dana Perino with your comments.
To my mind, there are only three real journalists in the United States of America: Michael Ware of CNN, Christiane Amonopour of CNN and Helen Thomas of AP.
They ask the tough questions and pay the price. Michael Ware is attacked by Drudge, The White House and The American Military for telling the truth, but, what is worse he tells you why. He was the first to report that the American Military had made secret deals with Sunni Leaders and their Death Squads. You leave us alone and we'll leave you alone. No one else is telling that story. The President and American Generals have fought to have him kicked out of Iraq.
Christiane Amonpour has consistantly taken us behind the scenes to give us the background to explain what's going on. What is extraordinary about her is that she is fair and tells the truth. Fox/Faux News crucifies her almost as often as Michael.
Then there is our Helen, the bravest of them all. Kicked out of the front row, relegated to the back row, She still screams out those questions no one else will ask. Perino insults, mocks and attacks, but Helen won't give an inch. She should teach courage at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. On top of that she is a favorite target of Fox.
Brian Williams attacked The New York Times for reporting on Pentagon Guns for hire. The Armstrong Williams of the Military, I'm not sure if I mean Brian or the paid fronts.
What Michael Ware, Christiane Amonpour and Helen Thomas practice is journalism, the way, Edward R. Murrow practiced it. And that takes guts.
All Three deserve the Medal of Freedom, starting Helen: America needs its gadflies.
Brian Williams needs to work at Fox. With "those" people, we all know he is one already.
CRT @ 42:
I think Helen Thomas' relationship with the Gridiron Club makes her reluctant to abandon its traditions. There was a time, despite being a premier White House correspondent, she was not welcome to participate - the Gridiron was closed to women. She pushed, with a few other female print reporters, the membership to admit them. It may be an elitist group (they wouldn't even admit TV reporters until just recently) , but she does hold an historic stake in the club.
Helen is a proud past president of Gridiron, as was my father. She worked with my Dad on its music committee for decades. Gridiron is very close to the heart of all its members, and being president of Gridiron is to a journalist what the presidency of the USA is to a politician. There isn't a member who takes membership lightly.
Erroll @ 56:
Again, you miss the point. Perhaps you should troll with someone with whom you can create a viable argument, or perhaps that is asking too much from a bleeding heart like yourself.
Listen up chief (redux): My point and I shall make it as sterling as possible, is that the press exists to ferret out the truth, that is their job. period, end of story.
The fact that the press, with the exception of a few (Irrespective of age, gender, etc) are in the pocket the the administration, does not mean that we send flowers to those that do their jobs (Irrespective of age, gender, etc), it means that we target the larger press corps that is failing to do theirs and regulate them in a way that forces their hand to report the truth. The fact that Helen sits at her typewriter every day and bangs out honest reporting is not an anomaly, it is what reporters do, it is their job, it is how they make a living. The fact that she is one of few, says less about Helen but more about the larger press corps being tainted.
It would seem that rather than looking at my argument, you see me as denigrating an old lady whom you love. I would say to you, stop replying to me and send her some flowers already. And while you are at it, send some to your local air traffic controllers who make sure that planes land safely, to all the employees at your local spca, perhaps even to yourself if you feel that you are doing a super job - and from what i can gather from your previous replies, that is most certainly the case.
Helen, please take this as a complement. As a White House reporter, you have shown time after time that you have balls the size of bowling balls compared to the pre-teen balls of David "may I have this dance Mr. Rove?" Gregory. And MSNBC even gave this kiss-ass piece of shit his own show.Go figure!!!
david
ebone @ 66:
This will probably be like shouting into the wind but nonetheless I will attempt to reveal the error of your ways. Your argument, as much as I can make out, is that a journalist [or any one else for that matter] should never be congratulated or praised for doing their job, even if they do their job, to use one of your words, in a sterling way. In other words, a person should never be recognized, either by their superiors or their peers or anyone else, if they do an outstanding job at his or her workplace. They should simply be taken for granted for doing the job that he or she does. You may wish to try going out in the real world and see if people, no matter what their occupation, desire to be treated in this fashion. Five will get you ten that they will not.
Maybe people should send flower to the other White House reporter with a note saying.
Please forward to Helen Thomas for her work in asking the administration "real" questions.
She deserved an award for helping out Colbert when he was invited to the press corp dinner. I am shocked her clearance wasn't revoked after that night, which indicted both the government and the press.
Login or Register to post comments.