FALLS CHURCH, Va., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Journalist Helen Thomas, who lost her job last summer after remarks about Jews, has returned to the industry with a column in the Falls Church (Va.) News-Press.
Thomas, 90, who lost her decades-long place in the White House press corps after she was videotaped saying Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine," was announced as a columnist for the News-Press by founder Nicholas Benton, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Benton said in a News-Press note to readers he is satisfied from his experience with Thomas that she is "neither bigoted, nor racist, nor anti-Semitic."
"Her remarks in June were in response to a question about Israel, not Jews, and were intended to mean that in these times, Jewish people are free to live wherever they wish, because the era of anti-Jewish persecution is ended. That was not adequately expressed because of the impromptu nature of the incident," Benton wrote.
Thomas' first column at the News-Press is about the privatization of Social Security, the newspaper said.
