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HYPOCRISY-THY name is US Freedom of Press !
Since the fall of Great Britain, after the second World War, we have been fed with a belief that US is the “greatest in the world,” “the greatest ever,” or “the greatest in the history of mankind.”
Some older nations—that have survived many cycles of history—might think this strange. Greece, Rome, Aryan, Arabs, Mongols, Moguls and Turkish empires are part of history now and gone into the folklore. Today, we have America and we have to understand America. The descendants of earlier great nations have accepted the new realities. They have the self-assurance of a long and often distinguished history behind them and do not feel compelled to stake out exaggerated claims of national greatness.
So, we tell our kids - United States is unique among nations: the greatest country ever, populated by the noblest breed of humans, the instrument of God, and the greatest civilizing force on earth.
But my kids refuse to accept. They are part of the new generation that questions the authenticity of every statement we make. For them US stands at the top of the food chain and its a Land of Fried Chickens, Hamburgers and exotic Pizzas. Is the United States the world leader, then, in press freedom? That too is misconception. In October 2003, Reporters Without Borders published its Second World Press Freedom Ranking; compiled from a questionnaire with “53 criteria for assessing the state of press freedom in each country.” The United States ranked 32nd, behind Hungary, Jamaica, Benin and East Timor.
In today’s America biggest trouble with the notion of “press freedom” is that a few obscenely rich individuals and their corporations control vast sections of our news media. It has been all downhill in the 21st century also. Last time US ranked 36 th on the list of Press Freedom.
The retirements of Helen Thomas, the senior most White House correspondent and Octavia Nasr, the Middle East editor of CNN are the most recent example of how abruptly, arrogantly and violently these Torch Bearers of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms trample upon their own avowed and proclaimed values and slogans.
Helen Thomas, the 89-year-old dean of White House correspondents is the most courageous and intrepid Journalist of our times. She has been covering the White House since the time of President Dwight Eisenhower and in office for over 50 years. Earlier she was working as a columnist of Hearst Corporation when she was accused of “anti-Semitism” and was forced to resign from her job.
Very recently, during a “Jewish Heritage celebration” at the White House on May 27, she was approached by an anti-Palestinian rabbi who asked her what she thought of Israel. She replied in the simplest language by saying: “They should get the hell out of Palestine.” He then asked her where should those Israelis go, Thomas answered: “Go home.” “Where’s home?” the rabbi asked. “Poland. Germany.” She responded.
Helen Thomas answered the questions right. These people who are occupying Palestine today have only a religious nexus and nothing else with the Land of Palestine. She did not say or mean that Jews should leave West Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Nazareth and go back to Germany or Poland, as the media made it out to be. The context of her words was, a reference to the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Israel since 1967.
Helen Thomas’ statement does not even contradict the official US policy that considers the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal.
Not very long ago, only just a year back, President Obama went to Cairo and delivered a historic speech which was supposed to be “a new beginning” between America and the Arab and Islamic world. The world knows that US is that it is a country that subsidizes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and supports Israel no matter what Israel does. The worst example of this blind support is President Obama’s failure to condemn Israel over its killing of an American citizen and nine other Turkish citizens on “Freedom Flotilla” that aimed to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Helen Thomas was born in Winchester, Kentucky. Her parents, George Thomas and Mary migrated to the U.S. from Tripoli, which was then in Syria (in the 1890s), but is now part of Lebanon. Her parents could neither read nor write. Thomas was raised as a Christian in the Greek Orthodox Church. She was the seventh of nine children and was largely reared in Detroit, Michigan, where her family moved when she was four years old, and where her father opened up a grocery store. Thomas attended Wayne University (now Wayne State University), graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1942.
Throughout her career as a correspondent, Thomas earned a reputation for being relentless and demanding. In an interview with Fidel Castro, USA Today founder Al Neuharth asked the Cuban leader what the difference was between democracy in Cuba and democracy in the United States. Castro replied, “I don’t have to answer questions from Helen Thomas.”
Thomas was the only member of the White House Press Corps to have her own seat in the White House Briefing Room.
Thomas publicly expressed her opinion about President George W. Bush; after a speech at a Society of Professional Journalists banquet, she told an autograph-seeker, who asked why she was sad, “I’m covering the worst president in American history.”
Her famous brush with Junior Bush. “I’d like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet…your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth… what was your real reason? You have said it wasn’t oil…quest for oil, it hasn’t been Israel, or anything else. What was it?
On August 4, 2009, Thomas celebrated her 89th birthday. President Obama, who shares his birthday with Thomas, presented her with birthday cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to her before the press conference took place that day.
In coming August this giant of free press is going to celebrate her 90 th Birthday.
This article would be remain incomplete if I fail to talk about Octavia Nasr of CNN who was thrown out of job because she had paid open tribute to Shia Clerc of Lebanon.
