Post Your Favorite Helen Thomas Questions Here!

[theorist]

Helen Thomas has asked pointed questions of every president. Some could even claim that they have a "partisan bent".

The right wing columnists are pretending that the questions Gannon/Guckert asked are no more partisan than those asked by Helen Thomas. Let's nip this little meme in the bud right now!

I'll start it off. Here's a question she asked of Bill Clinton:

Helen Thomas: "Mr. President, what can the U.S. and NATO to stop the killing in Kosovo? And what do you say to people who have said that you have lost all the moral authority to lead this nation or to conduct foreign affairs?"
(Emphasis mine.)

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/09/16/clinton.newser/transcript.html

[Eric J in MN]

1. Here is some good stuff

http://slate.msn.com/id/2080034



Thomas to Fleischer: Will you state for the record, for the historical record, why (Bush) wants to bomb Iraqi people?
—March 5, 2003

Thomas to Fleischer: (Why) is (Bush) going to bomb them? I mean, how do you bomb people back to democracy? This is a question of conquest. They didn't ask to be "liberated" by the United States. This is our self-imposed political solution for them.
—Feb. 26, 2003

Thomas: At an earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the president deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world?
Fleischer: Well, Helen—
Thomas: And I have a follow-up.
Fleischer: —I refer specifically to a horrible terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds. And the president, as he said in a statement yesterday, deplores in the strongest terms the taking of those lives and the wounding of those people, innocents in Israel.
Thomas: My follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?
—Jan. 6, 2003

[theorist]

2. That's good, but I want some from previous presidents.

Especially asked of Dems (Clinton and Carter). Thanks. I just don't have the time to do the research. :hi:

[ryan_cats]

3. What is a meme?

What exactly is a meme? I've seen it mentioned in the past but I have no idea what it is or means.

[theorist]

4. It's an "undebatable truth" that a lot of people agree to.

A stereotype is a kind of meme. It's how we filter the world, so it's not necessarily unhealthy.

RW columnists have started saying Thomas is just as partisan as Gannon, but I disagree. They're claiming it without supporting it with facts. That's why I call it a meme; they're assuming it's common knowledge and that it's true.

[ryan_cats]

6. Ok

I kind of get it.
I see how what Gannon is saying. Now, let's looks how he treated the past five presidents to compare them. Oh ok, he didn't cover the past five, ok how about the last two...

[theorist]

7. He's a nobody. He was a nobody before he got into the WH.

It's hard to say what Gannon was doing prior to his WH gig, but it definitely was not political punditry or reporting.

What I'm getting at with this post, is that to compare H. Thomas to this nobody, is disrespectful to Thomas. Gannon was beholden to a party ideology, Thomas is beholden to the truth.

I'll have to do it later, since everyone here is less than interested in disproving a potentially successful talking point....

[theorist]

8. By the way, Welcome to DU!

:hi:

I was too busy getting my point across, and I didn't notice you're a newbie. I hope you like it here!

[ryan_cats]

11. Thank you

I laugh when they compare the two. Let's see where he is 20 years from now?

[theorist]

5. Kick! Help defend your side! n/t

[UTUSN]

9. "I'm a TOP? I Don't PRESS? Just Leave IMPRESSIONS?" n/t

[theorist]

10. Huh?! That doesn't even make sense. n/t

[UTUSN]

12. Since It's Your Thread and I Imposed, I'll Explain

it's a sarcastic reference to GUCKERT.

[theorist]

13. I caught the Gannon reference, but I thought

you were making them out to be questions that Thomas asked. Sorry, I'm a bit tired, not to mention pissed off at the right's total lack of respect for Helen Thomas, maybe the greatest living journalists. To ridicule her, is to ridicule the entire history of political journalism in this country.

I hope everyone can learn to respect the woman's temerity with respect to the questions she asks. She's a firebreather to say the least.

[bpilgrim]

14. she talks about the Dog-n-Pony show of the * 'press conferences' ---> MP3

"How do you explain a LIE" re: Iraq war

http://news.globalfreepress.com/mp3/helen_thomas_airamerica_04-16-04.mp3

psst... pass the word ;->

peace

[Toucano]

15. This is going to be hard.

At the presidential library archives I've visited, the transcripts just list "Q. Blah, blah, blah" and then the response.

They don't say who asked the question because it didn't matter.

If there are other sources for the transcripts, we may have some luck, but it doesn't look good at this point.

It's a good idea though, and a worthy project.

[theorist]

16. But she always used to ask the FIRST question.

That should help.

[Toucano]

17. It sure will!

Thanks for the reminder. It's been so long since she's been able to do that, I forgot it.

Back to the archives!

[Toucano]

18. This isn't a softball.

"Press Briefing by Mike McCurry

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release November 13, 1996

PRESS BRIEFING
BY MIKE MCCURRY

The Briefing Room

2:10 P.M. EST

Q Mike, the President has just been reelected after a campaign in which he promised repeatedly, spoke repeatedly of the need for the United States to lead in the world. Here we have the first international crisis out of the box and somebody else is leading. Why?"

Topic Rawanda. It's the first one, if Helen was there that day. Or was she first only when the President was there, not the press secretary?

[Toucano]

19. This isn't a softball...and I know it's Helen ;)

"Presidential Press Conference on Economy

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 16, 2000

PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT

The East Room

2:25 P.M. EST

Now, Helen, would you like to begin?

Q Mr. President, you don't seem to have any good news on the Northern Ireland and Middle Eastern front, so I thought I'd ask you a homefront question. How do you like being targeted in the Republican presidential campaign? Texas Governor -- I have to quote this -- Texas Governor Bush told Senator McCain, "Whatever you do, don't equate my integrity and trustworthiness with Bill Clinton. That's about as low as you can get in the Republican primary." And McCain said that he resented being called "Clinton" or "Clinton-like," and a few other things. What do you say? "

[Toucano]

20. No soft ball here.

"Presidential Press Conference on Cuba

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release August 19, 1994

PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT

The East Room

1:30 P.M. EDT

Q Mr. President, in the last 35 years we've had an embargo against Cuba and increased the economic burden on them. I understand that's why the refugees are coming in. What is the problem with taking a few small, albeit brave, steps to negotiate a possible movement toward democracy with Cuba? We've dealt with many communist countries through the last 35 years, and we're dealing with them now."

That wasn't Clinton's position. He favored continuing the embargo.

[Toucano]

21. Real reporter's question

Presidential Press Conference on China MFN Status

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 26, 1994

PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENT

The Briefing Room

5:10 P.M. EDT

Q Mr. President, most of the conditions, the aspects of this problem were prevalent last year when you made very strong threats of a cut-off of human rights. Aren't you really bowing to big business and backing off of human rights in terms of the world perception?

[theorist]

22. Awesome stuff! Thank you so much!

I'll definitely give you credit for the work. Here's why I want this info: I'm going to do a blog post on the Gannon apologists throughout the media--especially the RW columnists.

When people start to realize that Gannon isn't even a fake journalist so much as he is a criminal, I want to shame all of those who claimed his presence was no more nefarious than the presence of Helen Thomas.

If you know anything about her, you know that, in the realm of journalism, Gannon (much less myself) is worthy to spit shine her shoes.

:yourock:

[Toucano]

23. Thank you.

I thought it was worth doing.

The only tricky part is that if the president didn't say, "Helen.", we can't be 100% certain it's her question. There could have been times when she wasn't able to make it to a press conference, and there were a couple of times when Clinton called on her second for whatever reason.

I'll look into the Carter and Kennedy archives when I have more time.

[theorist]

24. Cool. I've bookmarked this thread.

If it falls into the archives, and you have to start another one, could you PM me with the link? That would be great! Thanks again, Toucano!

[Toucano]

28. Sorry theorist

I've not had any luck finding transcripts of Carter or Kennedy press conferences. There are photos, but no transcripts I can find online.

I did find this link from where she asked some questions at the 1992 Debate, but she appears to have only asked a question of Perot.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingourdestiny/92debates/3prez4.html

[TryingToWarnYou]

25. DO YOUR HOMEWORK...dont just take whats been presented here as fact

Ensure that the quotes attributed to her are indeed hers. Give the conservatives no room to manuver, no quarter and no way to question it. If even one quote you attribut to Helen isnt hers, they will mobilize on that one little thing and invalidate your entire argument using the 'liburl media'.

Just sayin..

[theorist]

26. Oh, don't worry about that.

I verify everything and back it up with links. If I'm not absolutely sure, I'll leave it out. I might even try to get ahold of her and run these questions by her, so I can cite her as confirmation. Back to writing....

on edit: Thanks for bringing up that point. It shouldn't be lost on anyone representing the left in any capacity!

[Toucano]

27. Very true.

Maybe we can check on C-SPAN to see if they have any archives that can verify the ones that lack the "Helen."