Helen Thomas Retires Pat Buchanan keeps working [View All]

[Raineyb]

Helen Thomas said something quite hateful about Jews going back where they came from vis a vis Palestine. (I'm paraphrasing at this point.) She's now retiring, no doubt under pressure because many people are screaming for her head including the despicable Ari Fleischer. In addition, many other media people have taken time out of their busy yammering schedules to condemn Ms. Thomas including the man who was supposed to co-write a book she was working on.

Pat Buchanan has said hateful things about black people, Latinos, Muslims, and basically anyone not white, and he has said these things for years. His track record is longer than a mafioso's rap sheet. However apparently, because his hate for all those groups is greater than his hate for Jewish people, he stays on the air.

Helen Thomas is retiring, no doubt under pressure from her soon to be former employer, despite her apology, days after her remarks. Pat Buchanan continues to be taken seriously enough to show up on the political talk shows and even has appeared on a panel on Hardball where the topic was race yet no black people were to be seen. A panel on race including Pat Buchanan a blatant racist? The mind boggles. Meanwhile, the man has never apologized for a single racist thing he said.

I'm not sure that I could blame someone for looking at the disparate treatment of two media personalities who are accused of bigotry for coming to the conclusion that bigotry only causes a loss of income if you are bigoted toward the wrong group.

There is much cheering and applause because Ms. Thomas has chosen to retire. I can't help but think: why the fuck should I cheer for Ms. Thomas' forced retirement when Pat Buchanan, whose bigotry is a hell of a lot more dangerous to my ass, gets a free pass every bloody day? How wrong am I to want to see the established bigot with the long "rap sheet" be banished as well as shunned by others in the media industry and not give so much of a shit about Ms. Thomas' transgression.