By Lisa Conley
Round Table editor-in-chief
The Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine [and] go home [to] Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else”.
That was the opinion given by Helen Thomas, former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and opinion columnist, when asked for a comment on Israel.
Unsurprisingly, Thomas’s strongly-stated opinion resulted in several negative repercussions for the renowned journalist, including her abrupt resignation from Hearst Newspapers.
Thomas’s comment may have been inappropriate, but so too was the reaction to it.
Here is a remarkable woman who paved the way for women journalists everywhere by becoming the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first female member of the Gridiron Club.
How is she repaid for her innumerous and invaluable contributions to society? By being denied a table at the White House Correspondents Association’s annual dinner. Although she is still permitted to purchase two tickets to the event, Thomas, the woman who was crucial in granting women access to the previously all-male dinner, will not be able to celebrate in the company of her family and friends as she has in previous years.
It seems more-than-coincidental that the Association’s new policy, which prevents past WHCA presidents from receiving their own table, was enacted the same year as Thomas’s brush with controversy.
Everybody makes mistakes and everybody has said things that they probably shouldn’t, yet for some reason we seem incapable of forgiving such faux pas when public figures are involved.
We as a society allow people’s accomplishments to be overshadowed by a single misjudgment. We condemn them and ostracize them until their name is synonymous with scandal and nobody remembers their other achievements.
When people hear the name Richard Nixon, they think Watergate. When people hear the name Bill Clinton, they think Monica Lewinsky. Never mind the achievements that these presidents accomplished during their time in office; it is the scandals that define them and while yes, they are by no means minor infractions, it is inherently unfair that public figures are not granted the same level of understanding as the rest of us.
Helen Thomas deserves more than a table; she deserves forgiveness.
