Helen Thomas kicks the shit out of Hugh Hewitt on HH's radio show

[BurtWorm]

Disclosure: I didn't hear it. I only read the transcript. I was alerted to it by a winger site that claimed HH kicked the shit out of HT. But judge for yourself:


http://www.radioblogger.com/#001391

HH: But I'm getting back to the point that you and your colleagues in the press room, you really don't like Dick Cheney or George Bush at all, do you?

HT: I didn't say that. I certainly respect the presidency. I don't like their...what they've done. I don't like the war per se. I certainly don't like torture. I don't like the degradation of America.

HH: Helen, but you don't like them, do you? I mean honestly.

HT: What the hell's that got to do with it?

HH: I think it matters...

HT: No, I consider myself a very straight and fair reporter.

HH: Well, I didn't say you weren't.

HT: I judge these people on their actions. Do you?

HH: Well, I don't say you're not. I'm just asking a simple question.

HT: I'm asking you. The fact that you like him...are you angry that people are critical?

HH: Helen, we've been watching the White House press corps for the last two days get very angry at Scott McClellan, and I've seen you rassle with him for a...long years, a lot of presidents. But this one, it just seems to me, that this White House press corps doesn't like this president or vice president more than most.

HT: I don't think...I think it's a very valid story of asking why they waited 18, 20 hours.

HH: But that's not what I'm...I'm asking if you like him?

HT: I don't think that has anything to do with it.

HH: But why not tell me if you don't?

HT: What does it matter?

HH: Well, it might affect your reporting.

HT: Why isn't...that...because that isn't the way reporters operate. We operate on the news and on the facts.

HH: And you have no bias?

HT: No.

HH: No anti-Bush bias at all?

HT: Look. I take everything that he does with a grain of salt, because I've already seen...I think he was wrong to take us into the war...

HH: Do you think he lied to us about that?

HT: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Where are the ties...

HH: That's a question to a question.

HT: ...where are the ties to al Qaeda?

HH: Do you think he lied to us about that?

HT: I think he's still looking for the weapons of mass destruction. Are you?

HH: But do you...do you think...

HT: Do you care whether...do you care whether a president says there are weapons of mass destruction that can destroy you, destroy us in 45 minutes?





.............

Burt Worm, here: Wingers were amused by the fact that HT interrupts the interview midway through to suddenly ask Hewitt, "Who am I talking to again?" As if she actually lost it. But if you read the transcript, you get the impression that her real question was not "Who the hell *are* you?" but "*Who* the hell are you?"

[BurtWorm]

1. worth reading

[Left Is Write]

2. Helen Thomas is tough.

I like her that way.

(Incidentally, I for one have enjoyed seeing the press corp beat up Scotty McClellan.)

[StaggerLee]

3. This part:

But this one, it just seems to me, that this White House press corps doesn't like this president or vice president more than most.

Well that's because this administration talks in goddamm circles so much and so often that it has to be absolutely frustrating for the press to do their jobs.

garbage in = garbage out

And the truly objective media just wants the truth.

[seabeyond]

4. i odnt know the man. has nothing to do with like, not like.

i cannot give you an answer if i like a man, i dont know.

that would have ended that bullshit

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. Helen is one of a kind

sigh


I adore her

[StaggerLee]

6. Wanna know what lady liberty really looks like?

Rosa Parks

or

Helen Thomas.

or

Coretta Scott King

or

Cindy Sheehan

or

Sibel Edmonds

:patriot:




And so on, and so on...

[asthmaticeog]

7. Of all the RW shills out there, Hewitt is truly among the most loathsome.

Just the sight of that smug dickweed's face is enought to give me hives.

Go Helen!

[BurtWorm]

10. The sound of his oily voice makes me nauseous.

He must be a disease.

[kskiska]

8. She should have asked him, "Do you like me?"

If he said no, he would be biased, wouldn't he?

[B Calm]

9. Helen kicked his ass. What the hell does liking have to do

with reporting? No kidding, does he like Helen Thomas?

[dogday]

11. I would like to see Helen take on Cheney

I think she could chew him up and spit him out....

[stop the bleeding]

12. thank you for posting this - I love HT she rocks n/t

[BurtWorm]

13. Take note of the number of times Republicans ask Hewitt's question

or say the media "despises Bush and Cheney." It's the Talking Point.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/02/16/BL2006021600632_pf.html

The Veep on Fox

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 16, 2006; 8:36 AM

There was one line in Cheney's interview that really jumped out at me.

Here he was, telling Brit Hume about the awful experience of pulling the trigger and seeing your friend fall, rushing over to find his 78-year-old companion bloodied, and yet he couldn't resist a shot at the national press.

In the process of defending his decision not to put out the information right away and not to tell the national media even the next day, Cheney said: "I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was upset because, to some extent, it was about them--they didn't like the idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of the New York Times."

Does that sound like a man who views national news organizations with disdain?

Now that the veep has availed himself of a Fox forum, I wonder if the debate will start to turn. We're already seeing rising criticism of the White House press corps.

Bill O'Reilly has been arguing that the shooting doesn't affect the average American one whit but that "the press is making a big deal out of this because they despise Dick Cheney."