It’s often forgotten—although The Scrapbook certainly remembers—that Stephen Colbert’s famous excoriation of President Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner was only briefly about George W. Bush. It was actually part of an extended tribute to Helen Thomas, who was still writing her Hearst column at the time, was featured in a long (purportedly comic) video with Colbert, and sat beaming at the proceedings. When Colbert finished his performance, he motioned toward his heroine with an outstretched hand, and declared, “Helen Thomas, ladies and gentlemen!”
Well, that was then. It’s been less than a year since Helen Thomas urged Jews from Poland and Germany to “get the hell out of Palestine,” and, after the uproar, was obliged to give up her syndicated column. Now she is writing regularly for the Falls Church News-Press, a suburban Washington giveaway founded by a onetime follower of Lyndon LaRouche named Nicholas Benton. How the mighty have fallen!
But far worse, in The Scrapbook’s estimation, is the fate of the two awards named for Helen Thomas. As readers are aware, awards are to journalism as flies are to flypaper: There are nearly as many awards as there are eligible recipients, and you’d have to search very hard to find a journalist in America who isn’t “award-winning” in some form or another.
Now, not only has Helen Thomas won her share of industry accolades over the years—not to mention more than thirty honorary degrees (Brown, Michigan State, George Washington, etc.)—but two awards have been established in her honor. There is the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement, given by the Society of Professional Journalists, and there is the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award, bestowed by Wayne State University. Needless to say, the first recipient of the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement (2001) was Helen Thomas.
But what looked like a promising tradition in the annals of professional log-rolling and back-scratching has come to a premature end. Several weeks ago, in a speech in Detroit, Helen Thomas explained her predicament as an independent journalist covering the nation’s capital by informing her audience that “Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by the Zionists—no question, in my opinion.” Which was too much, even, for Wayne State and the Society of Professional Journalists, who have now announced that their respective Helen Thomas awards will be discontinued.
Which is too bad, in The Scrapbook’s view, and for two main reasons. First, as a specimen of comic relief, you can’t do much better than two journalism awards named for a garrulous anti-Semite whose primary distinction as a journalist was her longevity. Two awards named for Helen Thomas should be permanent reminders to journalists of the wayward paths to prestige in their business. And second, if Helen Thomas’s name is invoked to congratulate journalists, why not more awards named for colleagues of equal stature. The Walter Duranty Medal, for example, honoring the great Stalin propagandist for the New York Times; or the Peter Arnett/Stephen Glass/Janet Cooke/Jayson Blair/Dan Rather/Scott Beauchamp Spirit of Invention Award. Stephen Colbert could head up the search committee.
