HoodaThunk?

Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters takes note of an exchange between White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and press corp fossil Helen Thomas in this post. I don’t usually quote nearly the entire post of another blog but you’ve got to see this here. The “Q” in this segment is Thomas, asking her “questions”:

Q    Why should we depend on him?

MS. PERINO:  Because he is the commander on the ground, Helen.  He’s the one who is making sure that the situation is moving —

Q    You mean how many more people we kill?

MS. PERINO:  Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position, bestowed upon you by your colleagues, to make such statements.  This is a — it is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.

Q    Do you know how many we have since the start of this war?

MS. PERINO:  How many — we are going after the enemy, Helen.  To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it.

Q    Oh, regret.  It doesn’t bring back a life.

MS. PERINO:  Helen, we are in a war zone, and our military works extremely hard to make sure that everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy, and that is exactly what they are doing.

I’m going to move on.

Take a close look at that exchange. Beyond showing Thomas’ clear agenda and bias, beyond showing Perino’s completely justified outrage, this entire incident wasn’t a reporter asking a question. It was an activist and professional heckler trying to prove a point and engage in what I’ll loosely call debate. So here’s the real question: Why is Helen Thomas still allowed a seat in that room?

The Press Room is for Press to ask questions of the White House, as represented by the Press Secretary. Cindy Sheehan wouldn’t be permitted in there to heckle Perino with anti-war commentary and Ann Coulter wouldn’t be permitted in there to go off on No Child Left Behind. They’re activists, partisans; they’re not reporters. Helen Thomas isn’t, either, so why is she still allowed in there.

The White House should toss down the gauntlet to the Press on this and revoke Thomas’ credentials to be in the White House. Members of the Press Corp should be asking questions to elicit information from the White House for the purposes of reporting to the public, not using the Press Room as a soapbox to advocate on their views. The nation needs to hear what the White House is saying about the issues, not Helen Thomas. We care what the President is saying and doing. What Helen Thomas thinks about the war and the generals conducting it is something she can write into her memoirs and people who give 2 figs about what she thinks can read it there. The rest of us don’t give a… well, you get the idea.

Someone at the White House should get this idea and give Thomas a little break from her beat. Someone at her place of employment should consider giving her a longer break from their payroll.