Helen Thomas, the fiesty veteran reporter who has covered the White House since approximately the Cleveland administration, is retiring after remarks she made about Israel caused a bit of scandal.

Thomas, who will soon turn 90, is not known for holding her tongue. Last summer, she became news herself after calling the Obama administration out on press restrictions she said were “worse than Nixon.” At a White House Jewish heritage event on May 27th, Thomas made some ill-advised statements for which she has since apologized:

Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland.

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Thomas said in a statement on her website. “They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that pace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Yesterday, Thomas was dropped by her agency Nine Speakers, Inc. because of the controversy. Craig Crawford, with whom Thomas had co-authored Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do, announced that he “will no longer be working with Helen on our book projects.” Thomas announced her resignation from Hearst today, effective immediately.

The White House Correspondents Association released a statement today addressing the things Thomas had said and calling her remarks “indefensible.” The complete WHCA statement, below:

Helen Thomas’ comments were indefensible and the White House Correspondents Association board firmly dissociates itself from them. Many in our profession who have known Helen for years were saddened by the comments, which were especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trail blazer on the White House beat.

While Helen has not been a member of the WHCA for many years, her special status in the briefing room has helped solidify her as the dean of the White House press corps so we feel the need to speak out strongly on this matter.

We want to emphasize that the role of the WHCA is to represent the White House press corps in its dealings with the White House on coverage-related issues. We do not police the speech of our members or colleagues. We are not involved at all in issuing White House credentials, that is the purview of the White House itself.

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. That is an issue under the jurisdiction of this board. We are actively seeking input from our association members on this important matter, and we have scheduled a special meeting of the WHCA board on Thursday to decide on the seating issue.

Ed Chen, Bloomberg
David Jackson, USA Today
Caren Bohan, Reuters
Ed Henry, CNN
Julie Mason, DC Examiner
Don Gonyea, National Public Radio
Steve Scully, C-SPAN
Doug Mills, The New York Times

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas to retire after controversial remarks about Israel is a post from: The Inquisitr

Chip Reid and Helen Thomas gave White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs a four-minute chunk of grief over trying to “control the press” in a way Thomas said was worse than even Richard Nixon.

Thomas, who has been covering White House press briefings I think since Taft was in office, has had a bit of internet fame due to her part in Stephen Colbert’s epicly awesome GWB send-up during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2006. If you recall, Thomas chased a terrified Colbert around in his fantasy of being the White House Press Secretary, badgering Colbert about the reasons behind invading Iraq.

Thomas proved that her biting critique showed no partisan leanings yesterday when she and Reid laid into Gibbs for ridiculous executive branch policies that actually use social media to limit and “tightly control” the content of Townhall meetings and press briefings. The debate begins when Gibbs insists that Reid submit questions via Facebook and Twitter to be answered “tomorrow” rather than just opening the forum to on-the-spot questions.

Gibbs plays dopey, telling Reid to “get on his e-mail address” while Reid tries to explain how refusal to answer questions isn’t open or transparent. Gibbs giggles throughout the exchange in a way that makes you want to slap him, and really only proves the two annoyed reporters right by dancing around answering questions.

Two minutes in Thomas brings it, saying, ”I’m amazed… I’m amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency,” and cites a pattern of “controlling the press.” She tells Gibbs that the Obama administration’s “formal engagements are prepackaged,” and says that “calling reporters the night before, telling them they’re going to be called on- that’s shocking.” When asked if she sent in a question, she goes all grandma-don’t-play-that by snapping, “I don’t have to email it- I can tell you right now!”

Indeed, the exchange raises some interesting questions about the role of social networking and new media in the Obama administration. With all the Obama love being spread thickly and freely around the blogosphere, we kind of took it for granted that this presidency would use the technologies we all embrace- Facebook, Twitter, e-mail- to advance communication between press and the executive branch, or even your average dude and the White House. I’ll go a step further- we were lead to believe that. Obama sends me Facebook updates more than my best friend.

But is the Obama administration now using our “friend status” to filter valid questions and create an illusion of rapport with the press and by extension, the people? Bill Maher called Obama out early on for mocking the most popular question at one of the first Townhall meetings he had as president. In the meeting, Obama laughed at “the internet” for wanting to know if he had plans to consider legalizing and taxing marijuana to create jobs and create some desperately needed capital. Maher fumed:

“For Obama to mock, ‘I don’t know what’s going on the Internet,’ well excuse me…the Internet is America now. That sounded like John McCain.”

Well yeah, I want to know to- do they not know what’s going on on “the internet” or do they not care?

Helen Thomas calls Obama administration out on social media smokescreen is a post from: The Inquisitr