Fox Tea Party promoter probes Helen Thomas on 'liberal bias'

Liberal isn't a dirty word and Helen Thomas went on the Fox Business Network to prove it.

Host Stuart Varney tried to trap Thomas by asking if she was "far left," a term that Bill O'Reilly often uses to imply some liberals are nuts. Without pause, Thomas proudly admitted that she was "as far as you can go" to the left.

VARNEY: Some of the critics say that you are a liberal and you let your politics show, very very clearly, and that maybe you should not let your politics show when you’re a White House correspondent.

THOMAS: Why not? I’m a columnist; I’m an opinion columnist, and I have the right to show my opinion, and I am a liberal, indeed.

VARNEY: Would you say you’re on the far left?

THOMAS: I would say I’m as far as you can go

Varney went on to ask Thomas if she let her politics bled through during her time as a reporter for UPI. "I played it right down the middle. Nobody could accuse me of bias, but I didn’t file out of the human race. I allowed myself to think, to care, to believe, as you do," said Thomas.

Varney can't exactly claim to be free of bias. While filling in for Neil Cavuto on Fox News one year ago, Varney argued with OpEdNews editor Steve Leser on whether or not the Tax Day Tea Parties were "a sham and a fraud." After criticizing Leser for "strong language" and "insulting people," Varney segued into yet more Fox coverage of the movement, saying, "It's now my great duty to promote the tea parties, here we go."

At the end of the interview, Thomas said that it was "a little belligerent," which made Varney and his co-hosts laugh. But, then with a twinkle, she added, "Not you, me."

Thomas' co-author on Listen Up, Mr. President Craig Crawford first noted the Thomas interview.

This video is from Fox Business Network, broadcast April 27, 2010.

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