RE: Call for Immediate Resignation
of SPJ President Hagit Limor
of SPJ President Hagit Limor
January 20, 2011
Ms. Hagit Limor
President
Society of Professional Journalists
Dear Ms. Limor...
I have to admit, I am truly ashamed of myself... embarrassed by my own stupidity. It was so easy to find when I looked it up today.
You are a Sabra... a native-born Israeli. You danced in the streets of Tel Aviv after the Six-Day War. Your father is a Holocaust survivor.
Why did you not recuse yourself from voting on the Helen Thomas Award matter??? Why did you bring it before your executive committee and board of directors at all??? Why did you not simply admit, from the beginning, that you may have a conflict of interest??? You could have, at the very least, passed the issue along to the floor of the next SPJ national convention.
You did none of those things. And, apparently, you did a pretty good job of keeping your own, personal prejudices in the matter a great secret. (How many of your own board members just learned about your conflict today, as I did, from a posting on Facebook?)
Your board's horrific decision -- and now, your influence on that decision -- to retire the society's Lifetime Achievement Award was certainly an unexpected blow to me and, I believe, to a large majority of SPJ members. The dirt left on your hands by this latest "news" has rubbed-off on all of us... has made SPJ a national embarrassment. Only you -- very soon and very publicly -- can do something to ease our pain.
I can only blame myself for my not having done enough research on this matter before I took a stand. My stand has not changed, nor will it.
What you are going to do about this is far more important. I suggest that your resigning from the presidency of the Society of Professional Journalists would be a very good start. And, as a senior member of SPJ, I hereby ask for that resignation immedately.
LLOYD H WESTON
1-866-266-2002
Ms. Hagit Limor
President
Society of Professional Journalists
Dear Ms. Limor...
I have to admit, I am truly ashamed of myself... embarrassed by my own stupidity. It was so easy to find when I looked it up today.
You are a Sabra... a native-born Israeli. You danced in the streets of Tel Aviv after the Six-Day War. Your father is a Holocaust survivor.
Why did you not recuse yourself from voting on the Helen Thomas Award matter??? Why did you bring it before your executive committee and board of directors at all??? Why did you not simply admit, from the beginning, that you may have a conflict of interest??? You could have, at the very least, passed the issue along to the floor of the next SPJ national convention.
You did none of those things. And, apparently, you did a pretty good job of keeping your own, personal prejudices in the matter a great secret. (How many of your own board members just learned about your conflict today, as I did, from a posting on Facebook?)
Your board's horrific decision -- and now, your influence on that decision -- to retire the society's Lifetime Achievement Award was certainly an unexpected blow to me and, I believe, to a large majority of SPJ members. The dirt left on your hands by this latest "news" has rubbed-off on all of us... has made SPJ a national embarrassment. Only you -- very soon and very publicly -- can do something to ease our pain.
I can only blame myself for my not having done enough research on this matter before I took a stand. My stand has not changed, nor will it.
What you are going to do about this is far more important. I suggest that your resigning from the presidency of the Society of Professional Journalists would be a very good start. And, as a senior member of SPJ, I hereby ask for that resignation immedately.
LLOYD H WESTON
1-866-266-2002
Please See My Helen Thomas Letters Below
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = LLOYD H WESTON
2000 Hassell Road (#102)
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-6319
westonlloyd1@gmail.com
224-305-2171 or msg @ 1-866-266-2002
January 4, 2011
Society of Professional Journalists
Executive Committee
RE: The Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award
Meeting of the Executive Committee, Society of Professional Journalists
January 8, 2011 -- Nashville, Tenn.
Executive Committee
RE: The Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award
Meeting of the Executive Committee, Society of Professional Journalists
January 8, 2011 -- Nashville, Tenn.
January 11, 2011
Society of Professional Journalists
Board of Directors
RE: The Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award
Emergency Meeting of the Board of Directors, Society of Professional Journalists
Via Conference Call
Distinguished Members of the Executive Committee:
Allow me to introduce myself in the context of this serious, important and, to me, disturbing issue that is on your agenda for the January 8, 2011 meeting of your committee.
My name is Lloyd H Weston and I am one of you. I have been a journalist and a newspaperman for at least 50 of my 68 years of life. In junior high school I learned to set type, manually, one letter at a time, and how to use a hand printing press. Today, I am teaching myself the “magic” of transposing newspapers and magazines onto iPads.
In between, I joined this beloved organization in the early 1960s, becoming president of the Wayne State University chapter of Sigma Delta Chi and graduating with a degree in journalism and an SDX key in 1964. Until I moved to Chicago I was a member of the Detroit Professional Chapter, and am now a member and past-director of the Chicago Headline Club.
I have been a reporter, editor, publisher and newspaper owner, most recently (like so many of our colleagues these days) involuntarily retired from the Chicago Sun-Times News Group and Pioneer Press Newspapers.
I have been active in synagogues, B’nai B’rith and other Jewish organizations all my life, and I have been a reporter for both The Chicago Jewish News and The Forward newspaper. Never once in my entire career – until about a month ago – have I felt any sense of conflict between Judaism and Journalism. I have since -- in my own mind and through this and other letters I have written in the last few weeks – concluded – as I have really known all my life -- that there is no conflict. Ask me to show you two people in the entire world who cherish freedom more than life itself, and I will show you an American Jew and an American Journalist!
(Giving a nod to full disclosure, let me say that I have been – and remain -- a fan of Helen Thomas since I watched those 1960s JFK press conferences in college. But I did not actually meet Helen until I ran into her one day in the Press Compound at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. I introduced myself as a fellow WSU alumnus. She hugged me and we chatted briefly. I could not have been more delighted than a teenage girl meeting her favorite rock star. The next and last time I saw Helen was a few years later at a book signing in the Chicago area… a meeting which gravely saddened me at how old and feeble [she was very hard of hearing] she had become in such a short time.
(Let me add that, a couple of weeks ago I did receive a complimentary e-mail from Helen’s nephew, whom I have never met. I have not, however, communicated with Helen in any way, or heard from her, since that book signing, nor do I expect to.)
I no more believe that Helen Thomas is an anti-Semite than I believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. But the issue before you this week has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. It is not about Israel or Zionism. It is not about the Jews, the Palestinians or the Arabs. It is not even about Helen Thomas.
The only issue on your table today is whether SPJ stands for the unabridged right of any journalist – any American – to speak his or her opinion, on any subject, without fear of punishment or retribution from any government, individual, private or professional organization. To remove Helen Thomas’ name from the SPJ Lifetime Achievement Award, I believe, would constitute such dire abridgement, punishment and retribution. Let’s face it, guys and gals, if SPJ can do it to Helen Thomas today, what’s going to stop some other society or government agency from doing it to someone else (or even to SPJ), next week, next month or next year? And, who would trust SPJ as a safe port in the storm should a similar controversy ever arise again?
If the Society of Professional Journalists does not stand for unabridged Freedom of Speech – who will?
You may have seen the enclosed (attached) letter I wrote to officials at Wayne State early last month. It has been published or quoted in a number of online blogs, in Editor & Publisher magazine, the student newspaper at WSU, Facebook, and in The Quill Online. Also enclosed is a copy of the only reply I have received from Wayne, signed by Ben Burns, chairman of the journalism program.
I find my alma mater’s actions in this matter, briefly, to be unbecoming a public university, let alone a college of journalism. Mr. Burns claims a long-time friendship with Helen Thomas (as I asked Burns, himself, who needs friends like this?). Yet he has no shame in telling me he is ditching the school’s Helen Thomas Award while keeping its Helen Thomas Scholarship – which, undoubtedly brings in more money than the costly prize and trophy. What hypocrisy!
I expect much better of you.
I understand that you have received appeals – pro and con – from the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League, among others. Like the good journalists you all are, I know you will give each and every opinion its due, keeping in mind that even the most well-meaning have an ax of their own to grind and are NOT looking out for the best interests of SPJ.
The primary mission of the Anti-Defamation League, for example, “is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience… the defamation of the Jewish people.”
In that, the ADL does a very good job. It does the work it is paid to do. And its appeal to the Society of Professional Journalists is right in line with its objectives and methodology. But, I beg you to keep this in perspective. The good work of the ADL notwithstanding, this is not the skinheads marching on Skokie that is under discussion. I assure you that now, as then, every position taken by the ADL does not necessarily represent the opinion of American Jewry as a whole.
Indeed, if I truly believed that our elimination of the Helen Thomas Award would in any way -- any way at all -- help stop defamation of the Jewish people… or stop the defamation of even one Jewish person… I would not be writing this letter. I would be supporting the elimination of this award from our prize roster, and I would be betting that Helen Thomas herself would be joining me in that support.
But SPJ is not the ADL. If SPJ stands for anything, it stands for “the open exchange of views, even views (we) find repugnant.” This quote, from our own Code of Ethics, is what is at stake in your discussion of the Helen Thomas Award. Again, in my opinion, it is the ONLY issue at stake. And, as such, must lead you to only one conclusion.
We must keep the Helen Thomas Award, as is, in name and spirit. To do otherwise, I believe, would constitute a grave abridgement of our mission and severely impair the integrity of this organization and the profession it represents. SPJ is more than one achievement award. In fact, this Society is greater – much greater – than the total of all the awards it gives today and all the awards it has ever given in its century of existence.
Likewise, the Helen Thomas Award represents much more than a half dozen ill-conceived quotations spoken by a senile, nearly-deaf old woman, who happens to be named Helen Thomas and may look like Helen Thomas, but who is no longer anymore the woman for whom this great prize is named, than a bottle of vinegar is any longer the fine wine it once may have been.
And, what if you do change the name or eliminate the Helen Thomas prize? Where will it end?
Is SPJ prepared to demand return of awards from previous recipients who, later in their career, fail to meet the standards of ethics, writing or reportage that may have won them honors in earlier years?
As heartfelt as appeals from groups like ADL and Holocaust Survivors may be, is SPJ ready to un-name or re-name an award when perhaps some future honoree is targeted for something said or written on such matters as war and peace, national health insurance, civil rights or abortion?
Would we be having this discussion today had Helen Thomas’ remarks been disparaging to the Pro-Choice Movement… or the Pro-Lifers? Would you be sitting in an Executive Committee meeting in Nashville this week discussing an appeal from Planned Parenthood, for example, if Helen Thomas had been quoted as saying all abortion doctors should go back to where they came from? In all its history, has SPJ even considered censuring a reporter, columnist or editorial writer for expressing his or her opinion, no matter how distasteful we may have found it?
Of course not! And the reason for this is simple. We know that on the coin that is this nation’s First Amendment, we find “Freedom of Speech and of the Press” on one side and the “Sin of Silence” on the other. We know that we have nothing to fear from those who speak out… only from those who try to keep us from speaking out.
I hope that when this most difficult issue comes to a vote on January 8, you will kindly give some consideration to my humble words, and that you will do only what you truly believe is in the best interests of SPJ and our time-honored profession.
I am at your service.
Very truly yours,
Lloyd H Weston
Newspaper Editor and Publisher (Ret.)
Member, Society of Professional Journalists
Member, Chicago Headline Club
Newspaper Editor and Publisher (Ret.)
Member, Society of Professional Journalists
Member, Chicago Headline Club
This letter was posted, via e-mail, December 4, 2010, to appropriate officials of Wayne State University and its School of Journalism, and others.
LLOYD H WESTON
2000 Hassell Road (#102)
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-6319
westonlloyd1@gmail.com
224-305-2171 or msg @ 1-866-266-2002
2000 Hassell Road (#102)
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-6319
westonlloyd1@gmail.com
224-305-2171 or msg @ 1-866-266-2002
December 4, 2010
Dean Matthew W. Seeger
College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
Prof. Benjamin J. Burns
Chairman
School of Journalism
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
Gentlemen:
College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
Prof. Benjamin J. Burns
Chairman
School of Journalism
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
Gentlemen:
I read in the papers that my beloved alma mater, Wayne State University, has “retired” the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media award because of controversial remarks made by the award’s namesake. In reading some of these remarks – at the time they were made, and again today – I find that, in every case, she has done no more than express her opinion, in fact, regularly using phrases like “in my opinion” and “I think that… “ With all due respect to Helen Thomas’ last professional job as an “opinion columnist” for Hearst Newspapers, I fail to see the controversy.
Frankly, even considering all the common infirmities affecting her in her 91st year, I find many of her recent remarks, about Israel and the Middle East, to be deplorable and without basis in fact.
However, the same First Amendment that protects my right to be a Jew and a Zionist in America, protects Helen Thomas’ right to express her opinion of Jews and Zionists, no matter what that opinion may be. And while I vehemently disagree with the opinions she has expressed about Jews and Zionists, I will defend, as long as I live, her right to express them.
That’s what they were teaching at Wayne State University’s School of Journalism when I was a student there… when Helen Thomas was a student there. I fear today that my professors and hers are turning in their graves.
I cannot imagine any American journalist – let alone fellow alumni of Helen Thomas -- being anything but humbled, honored and proud to receive an award named for her and commemorating her long, distinguished career and many achievements as a woman, a correspondent and an author.
While you may believe that, by canceling the Helen Thomas award, you are “saving face” and perhaps enhancing the reputation of the University, I suggest rather that you have irreparably diminished the value of a degree in journalism from Wayne State by your clear failure here to uphold Freedom of Speech – the very foundation of any journalism curriculum.
While you may believe that, by canceling the Helen Thomas award, you are “saving face” and perhaps enhancing the reputation of the University, I suggest rather that you have irreparably diminished the value of a degree in journalism from Wayne State by your clear failure here to uphold Freedom of Speech – the very foundation of any journalism curriculum.
Others may condemn Helen Thomas for her opinion and her politics – as many have. But a public institution of higher learning – a forum for ideas of all stripes, in particular a school of journalism, is ill-advised to condemn her right to that opinion and her right to express it.
In 1964 (the same year I received my journalism degree from WSU) Supreme Court Justice William Brennan wrote, in New York Times v. Sullivan, of America’s First-Amendment “commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open." Even false statements, Justice Brennan wrote, “must be protected if the freedoms of expression are to have the breathing space that they need . . . to survive.”
The reasoning behind your decision to no longer offer the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media award sends a mixed message to your students – especially journalism students – that the values you have instilled in them over four years of education are both flexible and expendable; that Freedom of Speech and of the Press is not a foundation, set in stone, upon which life in America is based, but rather merely a suggestion to be taken if it suits you, or left behind when it becomes inconvenient or embarrassing.
I urge you to reconsider what you have done, and to apologize… to Helen Thomas, of course, but, more importantly, to the Wayne State University students and alumni who expected better of you.
Very sincerely yours,
Lloyd H Weston, '64
Newspaper Editor and Publisher (Ret.)
Mackenzie Honor Society
Sigma Delta Chi Key
Malcolm Bingay Key
Newspaper Editor and Publisher (Ret.)
Mackenzie Honor Society
Sigma Delta Chi Key
Malcolm Bingay Key
Cc: Allan Gilmour, WSU Interim President
Richard Bernstein, Chairman, WSU Board of Governors
The South End, WSU Student Newspaper
Richard Bernstein, Chairman, WSU Board of Governors
The South End, WSU Student Newspaper
Benjamin J. Burns, Director of the Journalism Program @ WSU, responded via e-mail, on December 5, 2010.
“Mr. Weston:
“Mr. Weston:
“I'm sorry you feel the way you do about the Journalism Program because of the university's decision to stop calling our award the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award. Helen Thomas and I have known each other for more than four decades and remain friends, but the Spirit of Diversity awards are given to individuals who have contributed to diversity in the media or inspired students to work toward diversity in the media.
“ Some of Helen's recently expressed views do not promote what the award was intended to accomplish. Of course Helen has the right to air her views. We honor that. However, we feel it is inappropriate to keep the award named for her. In future years it will simply be the Spirit of Diversity award.
“We will continue to award the Helen Thomas scholarships to journalism students of all creeds, colors, ethnic and religious backgrounds. And she and her local relatives will receive invitations when we award those scholarships.”
Mailed to the President of SPJ on Jan. 12, 2011....
The January 8 decision of the Executive Committee of the Society of
Professional Journalists to recommend the retirement of the Helen
Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement, as you know, is very disturbing
to me in many ways.
First, and most obvious of course, is the tricky wording of the
recommendation. "Retire," meaning no lifetime achievement award will
be given. "The recommendation is not to rename it or to remove Thomas’
name."
Yet, obviously, if you remove the award from SPJ's prize list... ipso
facto... you have indeed removed Helen Thomas' name! Or, do I
misunderstand? Will you continue to list the award as "Helen Thomas
Award for Lifetime Achievement (Ret.)"?
Much more serious, however, is the reasoning behind the committee's
recommendation... the apparent decision to add an exception to the
First Amendment's Freedom of Speech clause. In this case...there shall
be Freedom of Speech except if you say something that some people may
perceive to be anti-Semitic.
For the first time, you have dawn a line over which Freedom of Speech
cannot cross. And now that a line has been established, will future
generations feel free to move that line... up... down... left...
right... as they see fit?
Will a future SPJ executive committee decide to draw a new line, for
example, at anti-Conservatism... or anti-Democratic... or
anti-Congress... or anti-Abortion... or the perception thereof by one
or more "special interests."
Your decision has set us upon the steepest part of a very slippery
slope. How can there be exceptions to the First Amendment? Where will
we draw the line on drawing lines?
Those are questions that, in a lifetime as a journalist, I never
imagined we would ever have to answer. But if the SPJ Board of
Directors confirms your recommendation, I fear they are questions we
will have to face sooner than we may think.
Again, I am certain you will act in accordance with the best interests
of SPJ and our profession... and I pray that you do.
Lloyd H Weston
========================
From the Columnbia Journalism Review
Mailed to the President of SPJ on Jan. 12, 2011....
The January 8 decision of the Executive Committee of the Society of
Professional Journalists to recommend the retirement of the Helen
Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement, as you know, is very disturbing
to me in many ways.
First, and most obvious of course, is the tricky wording of the
recommendation. "Retire," meaning no lifetime achievement award will
be given. "The recommendation is not to rename it or to remove Thomas’
name."
Yet, obviously, if you remove the award from SPJ's prize list... ipso
facto... you have indeed removed Helen Thomas' name! Or, do I
misunderstand? Will you continue to list the award as "Helen Thomas
Award for Lifetime Achievement (Ret.)"?
Much more serious, however, is the reasoning behind the committee's
recommendation... the apparent decision to add an exception to the
First Amendment's Freedom of Speech clause. In this case...there shall
be Freedom of Speech except if you say something that some people may
perceive to be anti-Semitic.
For the first time, you have dawn a line over which Freedom of Speech
cannot cross. And now that a line has been established, will future
generations feel free to move that line... up... down... left...
right... as they see fit?
Will a future SPJ executive committee decide to draw a new line, for
example, at anti-Conservatism... or anti-Democratic... or
anti-Congress... or anti-Abortion... or the perception thereof by one
or more "special interests."
Your decision has set us upon the steepest part of a very slippery
slope. How can there be exceptions to the First Amendment? Where will
we draw the line on drawing lines?
Those are questions that, in a lifetime as a journalist, I never
imagined we would ever have to answer. But if the SPJ Board of
Directors confirms your recommendation, I fear they are questions we
will have to face sooner than we may think.
Again, I am certain you will act in accordance with the best interests
of SPJ and our profession... and I pray that you do.
Lloyd H Weston
========================
From the Columnbia Journalism Review
News Meeting — January 19, 2011 01:09 PM
The SPJ’s Tough Call
Should SPJ have retired the Helen Thomas Award?
By The Editors
In June of last year, White House press corps vet Helen Thomas resigned from her columnist’s post with Hearst Newspapers following an outpouring of condemnation aimed at controversial comments she made about Israel. Asked by a Rabbi for “any comments on Israel” at a WH Jewish Heritage Celebration, Thomas responded, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.” She went on to say, “Remember, these people are occupied, and it’s their land,” and suggested that Israelis leave Palestine and go back to Germany and Poland.
Thomas, now ninety, has since defended her remarks and is back to writing—penning a column for the Falls Church News-Press. In an interview about the new job, Thomas walked back her statements a little: “I didn’t tell the Zionists to get out of Israel, I told them to get out of Palestine, and to stop mistreating the Palestinians. It’s very depraved and inhumane. I’m not anti-Semitic.”
Now, in a move that has put Thomas once more in the spotlight, the Society of Professional Journalists decided last Friday to retire their “Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award—in December, it was reported that Wayne State University in Detroit made a similar move, putting an end to its “Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Media Award.” In a letter carrying the names of SPJ president Hagit Limor and communications coordinator Andrew Scott, the Society writes:
### Thomas, now ninety, has since defended her remarks and is back to writing—penning a column for the Falls Church News-Press. In an interview about the new job, Thomas walked back her statements a little: “I didn’t tell the Zionists to get out of Israel, I told them to get out of Palestine, and to stop mistreating the Palestinians. It’s very depraved and inhumane. I’m not anti-Semitic.”
Now, in a move that has put Thomas once more in the spotlight, the Society of Professional Journalists decided last Friday to retire their “Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award—in December, it was reported that Wayne State University in Detroit made a similar move, putting an end to its “Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Media Award.” In a letter carrying the names of SPJ president Hagit Limor and communications coordinator Andrew Scott, the Society writes:
A prominent objection to taking any action was that of Helen Thomas’ free speech rights. SPJ staunchly believes Helen Thomas and all people in the United States have a right to free speech. The Society defends that fundamental legal right as a core organizational mission, even when the speech is unpopular, vile or considered offensive.Some will no doubt disagree with the decision. In a letter to the SPJ Executive Board sent before the decision was reached, journalist Lloyd H. Weston wrote:
However, the controversy surrounding this award has overshadowed the reason it exists. To continue offering the award would reignite the controversy each year and take away from its purpose: honoring a lifetime of work in journalism. No individual worthy of such honor should have to face this controversy. No honoree should have to decide if the possible backlash is worth being recognized for his or her contribution to journalism.
I no more believe that Helen Thomas is an anti-Semite than I believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. But the issue before you this week has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. It is not about Israel or Zionism. It is not about the Jews, the Palestinians or the Arabs. It is not even about Helen Thomas.Where do you stand? Should the SPJ have retired the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award, or continued handing it out?
The only issue on your table today is whether SPJ stands for the unabridged right of any journalist - any American - to speak his or her opinion, on any subject, without fear of punishment or retribution from any government, individual, private or professional organization. To remove Helen Thomas’ name from the SPJ Lifetime Achievement Award, I believe, would constitute such dire abridgement, punishment and retribution.”
