The fallout continues in the wake of comments made last week by veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas.
In an interview with a blogger, Thomas said Jews should “get the hell out” of Israel and “go home” to Poland, Germany, or America. Yesterday, Thomas apologized for her statements.
Reaction this weekend:
• Entertainment agency Nine Speakers, Inc. has announced that it is dropping Thomas as a client. The firm “is no longer able to represent Ms. Thomas, nor can we condone her comments on the Middle East”.
• On FNC’s Huckabee, Mike Huckabee called Thomas’ remarks “outrageous, anti-Semitic, racist, indefensible. She says that the Jews ought to go home? Helen, they are home. Read Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 — that’s why they are where they are. Helen, I’ve got a suggestion: maybe it’s time for you to go home.”
• Thomas was a topic of discussion on CNN’s Reliable Sources this morning, with Howard Kurtz calling Thomas’ comments “just shocking”.
After the jump, more reaction from columnists and tvnewsers…
• Time‘s Joe Klein writes today that “it’s not unprecedented for journalists with odious views to have access to the [White House] press room. What is unprecedented is for such a journalist to have a front-row center seat. Thomas should no longer have that privilege. The front row should be occupied by working reporters, not columnists. The WHCA [White House Correspondents’ Association] should sanction Thomas by sending her back to the cheap seats.”
• FBN’s Liz Claman tweeted this evening, “Hearst’s Helen Thomas says Jews shud ‘go back to Poland and Germany’…Guess that includes me, Helen?”
• CQPolitics.com blogger Craig Crawford — who’s also a Nine Speakers client — states on his Trail Mix blog tonight that “I concur with the [issued] response from my agent to Helen Thomas’ lamentable remarks about Israel, and will no longer be working with Helen on our book projects.”
Crawford and Thomas co-authored 2009’s Listen Up, Mr. President, and were also collaborating on their next book.