I am saddened to read that Helen Thomas has retired today. She is a great reporter asking all sorts of "touchy, tough" questions to the slippery politicians. I think she should not have aired her personal beliefs as she did though being a reporter but just stuck with the facts and reported the facts. She will be sorely missed. Who is now left to ask the really, really tough questions in the WH now? No one. She will be back even if it's a blog. For an old lady of 89 she sure is tough and still has all her marbles. I read a biography about Helen and I was quite impressed with the lady's energetic approach to life.

She is a biggoted b*--- who has always harbored a hatred for Jews (she is of Lebanese descent so that probably explains it) .
Her recent comment also displayed an unbelievable level of ignorance of the holocaust and the post WWII diaspora. The truth is that the Jews could not go home... especially to Poland .

And that wasn't the first comment she had made along that vein. Just last week she called the Israeli boarding of the so called peace flotilla "a deliberate massacre". What kind of respected journalism was that ? Throughout her career she spewed what Tony Snow accurately called "the Hezbollah view".

The fact that she was such a 'well respected 'journalist says much about the pathetic state of the American press.

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

I am saddened to read that Helen Thomas has retired today. She is a great reporter asking all sorts of "touchy, tough" questions to the slippery politicians. I think she should not have aired her personal beliefs as she did though being a reporter but just stuck with the facts and reported the facts. She will be sorely missed. Who is now left to ask the really, really tough questions in the WH now? No one. She will be back even if it's a blog. For an old lady of 89 she sure is tough and still has all her marbles. I read a biography about Helen and I was quite impressed with the lady's energetic approach to life.

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It sounded to me like she had no time for the Jews in Palistine so she won't be greatly missed

Helen Thomas was not a reporter, she was an opinion columnist. The White House Correspondents Assn is now (finally) reviewing the appropriateness of having an opinion columnist in her position.

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But the incident does revive the issue of whether it is appropriate for an opinion columnist to have a front row seat in the WH briefing room.

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Good riddance, may she have a blessed - and quiet - retirement.

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she was an opinion columnist

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And mostly unread. I'd say in recent years she was a celeb. Taking up space.

As for who asks probing questions in the press pool... I'd narrow it down to 2 reporters . Jake Tapper of ABC ;and Major Garrett of Fox.