Helen Thomas, a long-time White House correspondent and a pioneer for women in journalism, has died. She was 92. A friend, Muriel Dobbin, says Thomas died at her apartment in Washington on Saturday morning.
Helen Thomas in February 2009
Never intimidated by presidents or press secretaries, Thomas was known as the dean of the White House press corps for her longevity in the beat. She reported for the United Press International wire service for almost 60 years.
Among the most recognized reporters in America, Thomas was a short, dark-eyed woman with a gravelly voice who, for many years, rose from her front-row seat at presidential news conferences to ask the first or second question. For nearly 30 years, she closed the sessions with a no-nonsense:
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
The first woman to be chief White House correspondent for a major news service (United Press International), Thomas has covered every president from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush.
In 1998, the White House Correspondents’ Association named its lifetime achievement award for her.
Helen interviewed for Ms Magazine in Summer, 1986 and she had this to say:
“I respect the office of the presidency,” she says, “but I never worship at the shrines of our public servants. They owe us the truth. They owe us peace. America should never be a country that starts wars; Iraq has reminded Americans of that. We do not have the right to attack anyone we think is a potential enemy.
“The Washington press corps has the privilege of asking the president of the United States what he is doing and why,” she continues. “We don’t go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers. We threw in the towel after 9/11. But I think—I hope—we’re more skeptical now. The press is coming out of its coma.”
Late in her career she became more and more tendentious in her White House questioning (from a seat in the front row, the only one in the room to bear the occupant's name). Her Lebanese ancestry coloured her opinions on Middle East policy, and these views eventually brought her down in 2010, when she responded to a rabbi's question about events in Israel with the comment that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go home to "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else".
In the ensuing furore she expressed regret and resigned, bringing to an end 67 years in the top ranks of her calling.
Thomas's books include among others:
Date Line:White House (1975)
Thanks for the Memories, Mr President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House (2002).
Listen Up, Mr. President (2009)
Everything You Always Wanted your President to Know and Do
Thomas, Helen
• Helen Amelia Thomas, journalist, born 4 August 1920; died 20 July 2013
Ann McFeatters is a Scripps Howard News Service columnist who has covered the White House and national politics since 1986.
Source: http://msmagazine.com/summer2006/thankyoumsthomas.asp
Sources: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/07/20/helen_thomas_dies_pioneering_journalist_was_an_irrepressible_white_house_correspondent.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jul/21/helen-thomas
Picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Thomas
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