This is a video of Helen Thomas.
Here is some background on her…thanks to Wikipedia.
“Helen Thomas (born August 4, 1920) is an American news service reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and, later, White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. She was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first female member of the Gridiron Club. She has written four books; her latest is Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.”
And some people think the media isn’t really that biased. This is a great video, and I think, puts things into a great perspective with regards to the media. Make sure you at least get to minute mark 3:15 and listen from there.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
Here is some background on her…thanks to Wikipedia.
“Helen Thomas (born August 4, 1920) is an American news service reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and, later, White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. She was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first female member of the Gridiron Club. She has written four books; her latest is Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.”
And some people think the media isn’t really that biased. This is a great video, and I think, puts things into a great perspective with regards to the media. Make sure you at least get to minute mark 3:15 and listen from there.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
posted by Kyle DiRoberts at 5:11 PM
2 Comments:
I think you bring up an important issue and one that I’m sure people will continue to discuss long after we are both gone. I don’t think it’s as simple as it appears in the YouTube clip in the post though.
I don’t want to have to defend Helen Thomas but I do think it’s worth noting that she is currently a columnist and not a reporter. Columnists are not supposed to be unbiased, in fact I cant imagine anyone continuing to read the opinion columns if the columnists didn’t take a strong ideological stance. I love smiling when I read pieces from ultra liberal Maureen Dowd in the Times but I also love to roll my eyes in disbelief while reading Peggy Noonan’s super conservative piece in the Journal.
It’s critical that reporters be unbiased but lets not confuse them with columnists. Because if you get to complain about Helen Thomas I get to complain about Bill O’Reilly.
Reed, Thank you so much for your response. I guess it is semantically tricky to debate her position as either being a reporter or a columnist. It sounds like the subtle nuances of the title columnist, reporter, or correspondent all begin to bleed together when one begins to seek a distinction between them.
Reed, You said something that I wanted to see if you could explain more for me. This is a real question and not a way of poking fun at anyone. You said, “I cant imagine anyone continuing to read the opinion columns if the columnists didn’t take a strong ideological stance.” Don’t most papers and news sources have opinion sections? Maureen Dowd, she is a writer for the NYT’s Opinion section. Peggy Noonan she is a writer for the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion section. I agree with you in that if those columnists, writing in the opinion sections, stopped being bias than no one would want to read them. But (and her is my question) where is it written or documented that Helen Thomas is a contributor for the opinion section for the Hearst News Service? As far as I know she is a reporter, and I gathering this is by her own declaration.
“Not only that but his conservative views on everything (speaking about Bush 43), I’m a liberal, I was born a liberal, I’ll be one till I die, what else should a reporter be??” –Helen Thomas
I guess I have a hard time seeing how Helen Thomas is talking about opinion columnists alone.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
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