The Whole Delivery

Sigh : The White House Correspondents Association is moving Fox News up to the front row in the briefing room, according to sources familiar with the process. The WHCA board's decision was unanimous. Since veteran journalist Helen Thomas retired, three news organizations—Fox News, Bloomberg News, and NPR—have argued that they should move to the front row. Fox News will join the broadcast networks and CNN up front. However, Fox News will not be taking Thomas's long-held seat in the center. Helen Thomas' front row position (not her seat in the middle but her position) is now owned by the Murdoch Clown Channel. And the fact that it was a full unanimous position shows how much of a sad joke our journalism is nowadays. Jokenalism 2010 at its continued finest.

After the Helen Thomas post yesterday , I received this wonderful email (edited): What a huge f---ing hypocritical piece of s--- you are. Its ok to insult Jews but not Muslims? Are you f---ing kidding me? You are part of a substantial problem we have in this country which is only getting worse. My (insert race, religion, pet cause) is untouchable, but yours? Give me a break. Your writing suggests you don't like Jews much. And now we know why... First off, I laughed when I saw this email, because it came out of nowhere at all. Seriously, I don't get hate mail like I'm Mr. Moulitsas. In fact, I rarely if ever get hate mail at all. I'm just not that big and all to get any hate mail, simple as that. Second, it was pretty easy replying back and simply dealing with this wonderfully nutty email. As that post clearly indicated, I never said it was okay to insult ANYBODY and be a hypocrite. And I have plenty of Jewish friends, colleagues, or quality acquaintances, ...

This 89 year old lady is a threat to our moral society of stupidity : The White House Correspondents Association is currently debating what to do about Helen Thomas in the wake of the explosion of outrage over her claim that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Europe. The WHCA has not commented publicly on her remarks, but in an email circulated late last night, CNN's Ed Henry, who's also the secretary of the WHCA, described them as "shocking and indefensible." That makes it unlikely that she'll be allowed to hold her plum seat in the White House press room. which, unsurprisingly, was empty today: What a surprise, Ed Henry the head of these insider steno-graphing gossip wannabes. What a brave stand Henry is taking, such great journalistic courageousness here. Standing up to the threat of DC journalism that Thomas is to there high moral society of stupidity. Yes, whether you believe her statements or not, Thomas knows tha...

Thanks to truthseeker for this Glen Greenwald has the details (6-24-09): For the last question at his press conference yesterday, Obama was asked by CNN's Suzanne Malveaux about his reaction to that video and to reports that Iranians are refraining from protesting due to fear of such violence. As Obama was answering -- attesting to how "heartbreaking" he found the video; how "anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust" about the violence; and paying homage to "certain international norms of freedom of speech, freedom of expression" -- Helen Thomas, who hadn't been called on, interrupted to ask Obama to reconcile those statements about the Iranian images with his efforts at home to suppress America's own torture photos ("Then why won't you allow the photos --"). The President quickly cut her off with these remarks: THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second, Helen. That's a different question. (Laughter.) ...