SHE WHO GAFFES LAST, GAFFES BEST
(apparently for the very last time)
Perennial nagging hag of the White House Press Corpse, HELEN THOMAS, put her dainty foot in it last week by committing the ultimate political gaffe -- that's where you accidentally say what's really on your mind.
What's on her mind? Here's a sample of what even Jack Shafer, left-leaning journo at Slate, called her "screw you" technique of turning a question into a tedious one-note lecture.
Anybody who was paying attention already knew the gist of Thomas's "one note": that the very existence of Israel is an affront to the cosmos. But instead of veiling this belief beneath distorted "questions" about incidents like the Gaza flotilla boarding, she just spat out the basics as she has always understood them. Questioned by journalistic Rabbi, David S. Nesenoff, at a White House Jewish Heritage celebration on May 27, Helen vented her nonagenarian spleen and proffered her very own "final solution":
Good grasp of history there, Helen! Let's see..... Abraham is called by God, and travels from Ur of the Chaldees to ....... Warsaw. Right.
[Apparently there is more to the interview, which will be appearing soon at RabbiLIVE.com -- can't wait to find out what happened next!]
YidWithLid went personal (tsk tsk) -- "Helen Thomas is as fair and open minded as she is good looking" -- but has followed up with some interesting observations about how much anti-Semiticism is ignored in the upper echelons of the public pantheon -- Al Sharpton, for starters -- and that perhaps Helen shouldn't be fired if all these other people still have a pulpit. Point taken. He updates that she has been allowed to retire, and that "It is sad that the controversy surrounding Thomas will now end and the media will go back to ignoring Anti-Semitism within its ranks."
[Our friendly Yid also breaks another story of Reuters news service engaging in "fauxtography", i.e. the deliberate monkeying with pictures that are then released as news photos, having been altered just enough to alter the news itself. Check out Reuters' selective use of the "smudge" and "crop" commands to change your perception of the Gaza flotilla kerfuffle.]
Amusing sidelight: my new anti-virus package from Viper had this to say when I looked up a link to the Huffington Post:
VIPRE has determined that the site
you are trying to visit is malicious.
Heh.
On a totally unrelated note:
Also via Slate, we have Nike's new World Cup Ad, which Seth Stevenson calls "The greatest ad I've ever seen." Have to admit, it's pretty amazing. We report, you decide.
On a totally unrelated note:
Also via Slate, we have Nike's new World Cup Ad, which Seth Stevenson calls "The greatest ad I've ever seen." Have to admit, it's pretty amazing. We report, you decide.
Cool.
