If ever there was a liberal journalist that pulled no punches, Helen Thomas was it. The White House correspondent was respected and feared, and sometimes embarrassed the Democrats when her true feelings sometimes emerged. . . especially when it came to Israel. Nobody ever denied her a seat in the front row, and that seat served her well through 10 presidents. She died, yesterday, at the age of 92.
Born in Kentucky to Lebanese parents, Thomas was a pioneer for women in journalism, seeking journalism after writing for a school newspaper, and building her name into something huge while she was with the United Press International. She built her name by not holding back, asking the hard questions, and torturing her victims.
Her strong opinions, and anti-Israel position, finally led to her leaving the journalism industry in 2010 when she said Israelis should "get out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany, Poland or the United States. The remark brought down widespread condemnation eventually ending her career.
The departure from that front row seat at White House correspondence events did not end her days writing the news, and her opinion. In January 2011, she became a columnist for a free weekly paper in a Washington suburb. A small ending to a long career, a career primarily spent at White House news conferences, where she was often the one to deliver the closing line: "Thank you, Mister President."
She challenged President John Kennedy for White House secrecy, and she challenged President George W. Bush regarding the war in Iraq - declaring him the worst president in history. She quit UPI in 2000, a shadow of its former self, and her a leviathan that UPI could not keep.
Though her influence waned in those post-UPI years, Helen Thomas continued her determined battle to get under the skin of presidents, even while the Bush administration marginalized her. She was fine with that. "If you want to be loved," she said years earlier, "go into something else."
During her career, Helen Thomas always fought for more press access to the presidency, fighting every presidency whenever they tried to restrict press access, claiming that if politicians had their way everything would be stamped TOP SECRET.
Helen Thomas's career began in Washington DC as a copy girl, for $17.50 a week. Her duties were those of a "Go-fer." You go-fer this, and you go-fer that. . . which was usually fetching coffee and doughnuts for editors at the Washington Daily News. When UPI hired her to write local news stories for the radio wire, her assignments were at first only women's news, society items and celebrity profiles. In the 1960 election, the election that ultimately landed John F. Kennedy in the White House, Thomas received her first assignment related to the presidency. She was sent to Palm Beach, Fla., to cover the vacation of the president-elect and his family.
During her career, Helen Thomas always fought for more press access to the presidency, fighting every presidency whenever they tried to restrict press access, claiming that if politicians had their way everything would be stamped TOP SECRET.
Helen Thomas's career began in Washington DC as a copy girl, for $17.50 a week. Her duties were those of a "Go-fer." You go-fer this, and you go-fer that. . . which was usually fetching coffee and doughnuts for editors at the Washington Daily News. When UPI hired her to write local news stories for the radio wire, her assignments were at first only women's news, society items and celebrity profiles. In the 1960 election, the election that ultimately landed John F. Kennedy in the White House, Thomas received her first assignment related to the presidency. She was sent to Palm Beach, Fla., to cover the vacation of the president-elect and his family.
JFK's successor, Lyndon Johnson, complained that he learned of his daughter Luci's engagement from Thomas's story. Thomas was there for President Richard M. Nixon's trip to China in 1972, and she was also there to cover the Watergate scandal, which wound up ending Nixon's presidency.
Thomas stayed with UPI for 57 years, until 2000, when the company was purchased by News World Communications, which was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church.
An unapologetic liberal, Thomas made no secret of her ill feelings for the final president she covered, George W. Bush. She led the liberal charge with the narrative that invading Iraq was an illegal war, and that Bush was "the worst president in history." She claimed that every justification for the attack was false, discarding any claim that al-Qaeda and the Taliban used Iraq as a safe-haven, and trained in that country under the safety net provided by Saddam Hussein.
After a visit to the White House, David Nesenoff, a rabbi and independent filmmaker, asked Thomas on May 27, 2010, whether she had any comments on Israel. "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," she replied. "Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland," she continued. Asked where they should go, she answered, "They should go home." When asked where's home, Thomas replied: "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else."
The resulting controversy brought widespread rejection of her remarks. Jews were offended by her suggestion that Israelis should "go home" to Germany, Poland and America because Israel was initially settled in 1948 by Jews who had survived or escaped Hitler's attempt to kill all the Jews in Germany and in neighboring conquered countries.
Within days, she retired from her job at Hearst.
Nicholas F. Benton, the owner and editor of the Falls Church News-Press, approached her about writing again. Benton, who had published Thomas' column for years when she was syndicated, said Thomas was initially dubious about continuing to write for the free weekly paper, which at the time had a circulation around 25,000.
"She said, 'You don't want me. I'm poison."
He responded that he could handle any criticism, and her column started running in January 2011.
The writing of Helen Thomas remained in the realm of politics, where she continued her liberal-streak, blaming America's woes on a need for a higher capital gains tax, and "a bigger divide between the haves and the have-nots, leaving not much of a middle class in America."
She wrote for the paper for a year, until her health prevented her from continuing.
She fought until the end. Like her, or not, she was an important part of history, and a mainstay in journalism that shaped the industry in ways that some may consider good, and others may consider bad - but regardless of how she shaped the industry, she made her mark, and has stamped her own place in history.
She wrote for the paper for a year, until her health prevented her from continuing.
She fought until the end. Like her, or not, she was an important part of history, and a mainstay in journalism that shaped the industry in ways that some may consider good, and others may consider bad - but regardless of how she shaped the industry, she made her mark, and has stamped her own place in history.
I may have often considered her vile, and politically disgusting, but she fought hard for what she believed, and we all should take a lesson, at least, from that. . . and her ferocity.
And as a final goodbye, I will simply give to her what she gave to ten presidents at the end of White House correspondence events. . . "Thank you, Ms. Thomas."
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Pioneering Journalist Helen Thomas dies at 92 - Yahoo! News
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