{"id":156318,"date":"2024-07-12T17:32:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T01:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=156318"},"modified":"2024-08-03T09:14:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T17:14:05","slug":"journalisms-crazy-old-aunt-helen-thomas-and-paradigm-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=156318","title":{"rendered":"Journalism\u2019s \u201cCrazy Old Aunt\u201d Helen Thomas and Paradigm Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Blanks Hindman and Ryan J. Thomas published April 18, 2013<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas abruptly retired in summer 2010 after she gave unscripted remarks widely perceived to be anti-Semitic. This case study applies paradigm repair and attribution theories to explore how mainstream journalists repaired the damage to their profession\u2019s reputation. It concludes that they (1) situated Thomas\u2019s remark against a backdrop of journalistic excellence, subtly reinforcing the point that her career should now come to an end; (2) suggested Thomas\u2019s remarks were caused by senility; (3) condemned her remarks as racist; and (4) raised the norm of objectivity.<\/p>\n

On June 7, 2010, the career of veteran journalist Helen Thomas, who had covered the White House since the days of President Dwight Eisenhower, came to an abrupt and ignominious end. The previous month, she had been interviewed on camera by New York rabbi David Nesenoff, who asked if she had any \u201ccomments on Israel,\u201d to which Thomas responded, \u201ctell them to get the hell out of Palestine.\u201d When Nesenoff asked if she had \u201cany better comments on Israel,\u201d Thomas replied that \u201cthey\u201d (Jews) should \u201cgo home\u201d to \u201cPoland, Germany . . . and America and everywhere else.\u201d The interview was posted to the rabbi\u2019s website, RabbiLive.com, on June 3 and quickly attracted media attention and comment. Thomas\u2019s speakers agency, Nine Speakers, Inc., dropped her,2 and her comments were condemned by the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association,3 the Society of Professional Journalists,4 and President Barack Obama, who said her comments were \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cout of line.\u201d5 On June 7, Thomas announced her resignation from her position as an opinion columnist with Hearst Newspapers and her retirement from journalism effective immediately.6 In her statement, she apologized for her comments, saying they did \u201cnot reflect [her] heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.\u201d7 However, her sixty-year career covering presidential politics was officially over…<\/p>\n

To retain good standing within \u201ca group with systematic relations,\u201d10 members must function in accordance with the normative behaviors and standards of the paradigm.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, such behaviors become unassailable, for the paradigm \u201crestrict[s] the range of questions deemed appropriate for study,\u201d rendering paradigms as hegemonic. However, they are not impervious; for Kuhn, a paradigm \u201cfails\u201d when the fundamental assumptions on which it is built come into question and are found to be inadequate.<\/p>\n

As members of the journalistic paradigm, journalists can be said to be an \u201cinterpretive community,\u201d policing their profession and defining, shaping, and reinforcing its norms, values, standards, and practices.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Blanks Hindman and Ryan J. Thomas published April 18, 2013: Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas abruptly retired in summer 2010 after she gave unscripted remarks widely perceived to be anti-Semitic. This case study applies paradigm repair and attribution … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156318"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156322,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156318\/revisions\/156322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}