Helen Thomas

She is almost ninety years old, for Heaven's sake, surely permitted an occasional injudicious rant, an exemplary exaggeration. It's not unknown as a great-grandmother-thing!

Oh yes, she was also for decades an accredited White House correspondent, with reserved front-row seat privileges.

But, as The Guardian noted yesterday...

It is one of those rare occasions in which one can see clearly how people in America who are willing to express anti-establishment opinions are demonised, marginalised and finally excluded from public debate.

Did I say "people"? I mean, of course, those who are identified as liberals. Right-wing TV and radio hosts can say what they like, however outrageous. Some iconoclasts are obviously freer than others.

Update: In case the comment goes unnoticed, here is what 'nzm' had to say...

To think of all those libertarians who thought that Obama was the next coming, and now the White House can't tolerate the honest, open remarks of a long-standing and knowledgeable press representative. The shame.