View From the Phlipside - Helen Thomas

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

Not with a bang but a whimper. The line is from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men” but it’s been running through my mind over the last week when I think about the Helen Thomas fiasco. Lots of people will say I’ve got it backwards, that her world ended with a bang but I disagree.

It’s easy to forget the place in history that Helen Thomas occupies. She was the White House correspondent for UPI back in the day when UPI was a big deal. Helen wasn’t just a reporter though. She served as the White House correspondent and then as the bureau chief there for a total of 57 years. First female member and first female president of the White House Correspondents Association, first female member of the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club some of the top “boys only” power clubs in the nation’s capitol. And Thomas had to do on merit because she was never, to be polite about it, going to have a career in TV. She was tough, hard nosed and relentless. You did not want to be on the sharp end of her questions if she decided to go after you. Helen Thomas was not afraid of anyone, any office or any question. Fidel Castro once said the difference between democracy in Cuba and the U.S. was that he didn’t have to answer questions from Helen Thomas.

All of which makes the firestorm over her remarks that much sadder. I’m not excusing them at all. I think there’s a chance that they’re being mis-interpreted but they are stupid never the less. First because some one with that much experience should know better than to make those kinds of remarks. And second because Israel is a political “third rail” issue. Like the electrified third rail of a subway, touch it and you die.

Sadly too many people will only remember that comment when Thomas’ name comes up. A long and distinguished career will be forgotten. Truth be told she probably should have retired years ago. Instead her career slowly diminished until it finally ended this way. Not with a bang but a whimper.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010