Top ten most left-biased American journalists - #1: Helen Thomas, UPI/Independent

By Warner Todd Huston

We have finally reached the number one, most left-biased journalist in America today on our top ten count down and our most biased journo pick probably won't surprise any of you. Even though she just "retired" due to her outrageous bias and hatred for Israel, we just have to give the number one most biased slot to the ever-vitriolic Ms. Helen Thomas, long time employee of United Press International (UPI) and later an independent Washington journalist.

Thomas was an over 50-year employee of UPI but in the year 2000 she quit the wire service because it was bought by News World Communications which is affiliated with the Unification Church. She was proud of herself, though, because according to her she was "never, never accused of bias" in her reporting.

"I worked for United Press International for more than fifty years, and I wrote straight copy. I was never, never accused of bias. I did not bow out of the human race. I permitted myself to care, to believe, to think. But I assure you, I assure you that it did not get in my copy."

But that isn't what her record says. Bias was epidemic throughout. In May of 2000 the MRC went back and found at least half a dozen instances where Thomas readily revealed her bias. Instances range from Ronald Reagan's days in office up to the year 2000 when she quit UPI.

The MRC found in part:

• In 1988, Thomas said that Reagan fostered an "uncaring society"
  
  
• In 1993, Thomas claimed she felt Reagan wasn't a "nice" man and that he "lacked soul"
  
  
• Also in 1993, Thomas said that Jimmy Carter had "proven to be our best past President"
  
  
• Of the Kennedy era Thomas insisted that when she thought of those days she felt it was about "mostly hope"
  
  
• In 1999 Thomas posited that a vote that didn't go Clinton's way was because of a "personal vendetta against" the Clinton
  
  

Right after Thomas' outrageous videoed comments where she said the Jews in Israel should "go back to Germany and Poland" where the "came from" and leave Israel to the so-called Palestinians — more on that later — Jonah Goldberg had a revealing tidbit about how long this bag of vitriol had been stinking up the Washington media scene.

One small example can be found in James Rosen's excellent book on John Mitchell, The Strong Man. Mitchell's wife Martha was a mentally unstable alcoholic who would call reporters to vent sad, paranoid, fact-free theories and diatribes. At first, many reporters were eager to hear her out, but over time it became obvious that Martha Mitchell was not well and it was cruel to exploit her. Obvious, that is, to nearly everyone but Helen Thomas who continued to milk Martha Mitchell for damning quotes and nonsense.

She's been getting away with it for decades but since the year 2000 she has really let her inner Olbermann loose on the world.

Thomas was a staunch detractor of President George Bush as well as the war in Iraq and her denigration of our troops and their mission is well known. Back in 2006, for instance, Thomas said that we were engaged in "wanton killing" in Iraq and that our goal was to support a "Shia theocracy" instead of an Iraqi democracy.

Well, I think that we've got to pull the troops out of Iraq. We've got to stop killing. This is ridiculous. It's more than ridiculous, it's tragic. Wanton killing, killing and being killed — for what? I think the administration wants to hang in there because they actually believe they can win. But I think that's a long shot, if anything. And what is winning anyway? Winning what? A Shia theocracy? Is that what American soldiers are dying for?

Then in 2008 Thomas leapt at the chance to use a photo of an Iraqi baby as a weapon against our troops. The photo appeared on the front page of the Washington Post and Thomas used that photo against Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino asking her why our troops liked to bomb Iraqi civilians.

"Do you think it's worth a million Iraqi deaths, to continue to bomb the Iraqis who did nothing to us?", Thomas asked Perino. "Are they bombing people — did you see the front page of the Post today, a baby?" Thomas went on to say that we are "bombing Iraqis there for no" reason.

No bias there, eh?

Now like most of the journalists we've been discussing the last ten days, Helen Thomas is no fan of you and me, Internet bloggers and citizen journalists. She thinks we are dangerous and destructive. In 2007, for example, Thomas said that bloggers are "dangerous." At that same time she also insisted that she had never made a mistake in her entire career. Later in 2008 Thomas blamed the then worsening situation in Iraq on bloggers. Yes, the "deteriorating" state of journalism was all the fault of bloggers, she said.

But it's all as it should be according to Helen Thomas. After all, every reporter should be a liberal as far as she is concerned. In a 2009 interview, Thomas made that startling pronouncement to an audience on Canadian TV. "I'm a liberal, I was born a liberal, I'll be one 'til I die," Thomas cooed. "What else should a reporter be when you see so much and when we have such great privilege and access to the truth?"

According to the book of Thomas, a reporter can't know "truth" unless they are a liberal? And one is "born" a liberal? What does that say about conservatives? What else could it mean but that Thomas thinks they are mentally defective, perhaps even evil.

Yeah, no bias there at all. Oh, but wait. On the other, other hand, Thomas claimed in a 2008 documentary that there wasn't any liberal bias in the press corps.

When asked by Rory Kennedy whether liberal bias exists in the White House Press Corp., Thomas said, "Hell no! I'm dying to find another liberal open their mouths. Where are they?"

Like many liberals Thomas can't keep her story straight. Of course, truth is easier to remember which is why liberals can't be consistent.

But the boom was finally lowered on this most biased of all members of the Washington press corps. At her advanced age, Thomas apparently lost her ability to temper her mouth when she let slip that she seemed to agree with those that might offer the Jew problem a "final solution," if you will.

In May of 2010, Thomas was confronted by an off-the-cuff question from a Rabbi with a video camera and what she told him put an end to her many decades of left-wing media bias.



Rabbi David F. Nesenoff had been filming persons on the White House lawn asking them about what they felt about Israel. Rabbi Nessenoff had both the fortune and misfortune to come across Helen Thomas as she ambled toward the People's Mansion. So, he asked Thomas what she felt about Israel.

Then I asked: "Any comments on Israel? We're asking everybody today." Like saying a password to enter a new, secret place. "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," she replied, and "go home" to Poland and Germany. We were in.

The Rabbi asked why she felt that way and Thomas told him it was because she was of "Arab descent." That was all. No further explanation seemed to be needed as far as she was concerned.

To all this the Rabbi can be heard on the video going "Oooooooh." And why that reaction? As the Rabbi explained:

In the past weeks I have relived this moment over and over, on television and radio, in newspapers and blogs. I've listened to a constant stream of commentary. And my sharpest impression is this: Where before I saw a foggy anti-Israel, anti-Jewish link, it's now clear. This feeling is not about statehood. It's about an ingrown, organic hate. It's a sentiment that bears no connection to history, dates, passages or verses. Erase the facts, the dates and the lore. Erase the Jew. Incredibly, even the Nazis said to the Jews, "Go home to Palestine." But Thomas and a babbling stream in our world and country dictate to Jewish people to "go home to Poland and Germany." Yeah, I said "oooh."

This once left-leaning Rabbi ran smack up against one of the most vitriolic, left-wingers in all the media and it caused him to reassess his entire political stance. Washington leftists were long down the road that has so often in the past led to wild oppression of his brethren. And Helen Thomas was there, cheerleading that wrong turn with the worst of them.

We are fortunate that as soon as this video went viral on the Internet, some of Thomas' old friends began to abandon her and her employers began to reassess their foolish decision to employ her. It wasn't long after the story became a sensation that Thomas announced her "retirement." Helen Thomas was finally off the beat.

And this is why Helen Thomas, despite that she is newly "retired" from her long, biased career as a journalist, deserves to take her place as the number one worst, most left-biased journalist in America.

As we end our ten-part-series, there are so many more that we'd love to have added to the list. We all know that there are dozens more journos working today whose work exemplifies the left-biased media but if we were to try and mention them all we'd be here for months. Frankly, it would wear me out!

Those that we considered adding to the list include: Jonathan Martin, Politico; Andrea Mitchell, NBC; Rosa Brooks, LA Times; Charles Blow, New York Times; Mark Morford, San Fran Chronicle; Ezra Klein, Wash. Post; George Stephanopoulos, ABC; Katie Couric, CBS; David Gregory, NBC; Nina Totenberg, NPR; Jeffery Toobin, CNN; Anderson Cooper, CNN; John Meacham, Newsweek; Howard Kurtz, Washington Post; Dana Milbank, Washington Post, and Evan Thomas, Newsweek. These are all worthy candidates but for one reason or another they just didn't make the cut.

So what have I learned from this little exercise? For one thing I've learned that despite the obvious truth staring everyone squarely in the face, these journos really do think they are unbiased. Amanpour was the perfect example when she insisted that no one out there could detect bias in her on-air work. She is so entirely blind to just how obvious her bias is that it really strikes one dumb to realize she thinks she is being non-partisan in her reporting. Humans have an interesting ability to fool themselves more easily than they fool others sometimes.

But is journalism worse than ever? I doubt it. I think its just as bad as it's been for decades, however we are starting to see the media change in small ways due to the influence of right of center TV, radio, bloggers, and websites that have been driving the news in certain instances. So, while the Old Media may have a propensity toward extolling the left's virtues they are no longer entirely impervious to stories from the right.

This is a good thing. But where it all goes in the long run? We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Thanks for sticking with us for the top ten most left-biased American journalists working today. We hope you enjoyed it.

The Full Top Ten List:

1. Helen Thomas, UPI/Independent
   
   
2. Joe Klein, Time Magazine
   
   
3. Paul Krugman, The New York Times
   
   
4. Chuck Todd, NBC
   
   
5. Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
   
   
6. Rick Sanchez, CNN
   
   
7. Howard Fineman, Newsweek
   
   
8. Christiane Amanpour CNN
   
   
9. Liz Sidoti, Associated Press
   
   
10. Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times
    
    

© Warner Todd Huston