The Helen Thomas Show

An interesting side debate has broken out over whether Helen Thomas should have been fired from Hearst for saying what she did. A retired Pakistani brigadier of my acquaintance wrote to me to say that this incident demonstrates that Americans do not really value free speech, and my old friend David Harsanyi, a columnist at the Denver Post, wrote:

I feel a nagging anxiety about a journalist losing her job over nothing more than a controversial statement.…

Cliff May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former roving reporter for Hearst (which syndicated Thomas' column), in a letter urged the company “strenuously” to “cut all ties” with Thomas “as quickly as possible.”

It seems an odd reaction, especially for conservatives, who are accused regularly of thought crimes and hate speech by outfits like Media Matters, which are in the business of smearing and discrediting those who disagree with them.

But an opinion — in Thomas' case, an ugly opinion that in all probability is more common than some people might believe — is no more than the strength of the logic behind it. …

A columnist offers provocative views. You don't have to like Thomas and you don't have to read her columns, but having a disdain for Jews in general or Israel in particular is hardly the most offensive thought that's kicking around.

My quick response: Helen Thomas has the right to work for any publication that will have her. If MSNBC wants to produce “The Helen Thomas Show,” they can do that.

I just don’t think Hearst should want to have her. As a former Hearst foreign correspondent (one who worked hard to report the truth to Hearst readers, including from Iran during the Islamic Revolution), I’m embarrassed that she writes for Hearst. If William Randolph Hearst Jr. were alive — he hired me — I suspect he’d be embarrassed by her. I think current Hearst management and employees should feel the same.

Hearst is not a government entity, so this clearly has nothing to do with the First Amendment (David did not make that case, but my Pakistani brigadier implied it). It also has nothing to do with free speech.

The management of the New York Times decides who will write their columns and op-eds (and few come from the pens of right-of-center commentators). MSNBC decides who will be their commentators (almost all of them from the Left). Helen Thomas, David Harsanyi, and I have no right to their pages and cameras.

One more point: I see Thomas’s remarks as expressing more than a “disdain for Jews.” I agree with Victor Davis Hanson, who characterizes them as envisioning

the departure of Israelis to the sites of the major death camps seven decades ago where six million Jews were gassed.

If that is indeed what Ms. Thomas intended, it’s simply not the kind of opinion that Hearst — which has always seen itself as mainstream American — should want to support.