A higher standard

One of the first things I thought when I heard Helen Thomas’ comments about Israel and Palestine was, “Hasn’t she been in this business long enough to know better?”

A journalist for 67 years, Thomas is perhaps best known as a fixture of the White House press corps, covering every president since Eisenhower from her reserved seat in the front row. Throughout her long career, she broke gender barriers and received countless awards recognizing her contribution to journalism.

In an interview by RabbiLIVE.com’s Rabbi David Nesenhoff at the White House Jewish Heritage Celebration on May 27, Thomas said Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Germany, Poland, America or elsewhere. The video went viral, and Thomas’ storied career was finished. She resigned earlier this week, saying in a statement on June 4:

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Some say Thomas, who is of Arab descent, has shown her bias on this issue before and this incident is just the latest in a long list. Two years after resigning from UPI in 2000 to work for the Hearst Corporation, Thomas reportedly said in a lecture at MIT, “I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter. Now I wake up and ask myself, ‘Who do I hate today?’” (An object of her disdain that day was then-president George Bush, and Thomas’ condemnation of the war in Iraq drew cheers from the audience.)

There has been much debate about Thomas’ remarks. There are those who say she has a right to speak her mind, no matter how offensive her point of view may be to some. Others say it’s her tough, outspoken nature and no-nonsense approach that made her such a successful journalist. And, in her current position as an opinion columnist, it can be argued that she has more leeway than she did as a reporter.

Whatever one believes about the issue, all journalists must hold themselves to a higher standard and strive to be as objective as humanly possible.

Of course, the operative phrase is “humanly possible.” But I would think after almost 70 years in the industry, Thomas would have tempered her remarks and kept her personal opinion of this particularly incendiary issue to herself, especially in an interview setting (and while being filmed, no less).

An ironic side note to this story: Nesenhoff’s full interview begins with Thomas giving advice to new members of the press corps standing nearby:

“Go for it. You’ll never be unhappy. You’ll always keep people informed, and you’ll always keep learning. The greatest thing of the profession is, you’ll never stop learning.”

How true.

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