Helen Thomas, Not A Zionist

This video is making the rounds:

Chait crafts a backhanded defense:

I find it morally abhorrent, but I don't think being an honest anti-Zionist should disqualify a person from working in journalism.

Agreed on both counts. Joe Klein agrees Thomas shouldn't be fired but thinks some punishment is due:

It's not unprecedented for journalists with odious views to have access to the press room. What is unprecedented is for such a journalist to have a front-row center seat. Thomas should no longer have that privilege. The front row should be occupied by working reporters, not columnists. The WHCA should sanction Thomas by sending her back to the cheap seats. This would accurately reflect her current status as a journalist while preserving her First Amendment right to be as obnoxious as she wants.

I don't see why the front row should belong just to reporters. Their total submission to the news cycle and making news renders much of their questioning a big old kabuki show. Why not allow bloggers in the front row? We'd sure make the awful, smug, useless Gibbs less comfortable.