Thanks & salutes to Helen Thomas BEFORE SHE DIES

I want to thank and salute Helen Thomas for her courage in standing up to power all of her journalism career WHILE SHE IS ALIVE. We didn't get to say goodbye to Molly Ivins before she died and don't want to miss expressing our admiration for Helen for being a pain in the butt to abusers of power for our benefit.

While other reporters went along to get along to protect their jobs, Helen Thomas was fearless in trying to get to the truth from all of the presidents she reported on---and, despite the risk, she kept her job for 57 years.

Thank you gutsy lady Helen - Salude!

BBB

The young Helen Thomas


Helen Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

President George W. Bush conveys birthday wishes to reporter Helen Thomas in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.Helen Thomas (born August 4, 1920) is a noted news service reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She has served for 57 years as a correspondent and White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, was the first woman member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first woman member of the Gridiron Club. She has written four books, including her latest, Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.

Early life and career

Thomas was born in Winchester, Kentucky, to Lebanese immigrants.[1] She was reared in Detroit, Michigan and attended Wayne University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1942. Thomas' first job in journalism was as a copygirl for the now-defunct Washington Daily News, but shortly after she was promoted to cub reporter she was laid off as part of massive cutbacks at the paper.

Thomas joined UPI in 1943 and reported on women's topics for their radio wire service. Later in the decade she wrote their "Names in the News" column, and after 1955 she covered federal agencies such as the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Thomas served as president of the Women's National Press Club from 1959-60.

Presidential correspondent

Thomas and Gerald Ford, 1976(note [Dick Cheney] on the far left)In November 1960, Thomas began covering then President-elect John F. Kennedy, following him to the White House in January 1961 as a UPI correspondent. During this assignment, Thomas became known as the "Sitting Buddha" and closed presidential press conferences with the tagline "Thank you, Mr. President."

Thomas was the only female print journalist to travel with President Richard M. Nixon to China during his historic trip in 1972. She has traveled around the world several times with Presidents Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, and has covered every Economic Summit.

She later became White House Bureau Chief for UPI, where she was employed until her resignation on May 17, 2000. At this time, UPI was acquired by News World Communications, which owns The Washington Times; Thomas has responded to allegations that she quit because of the Times' conservative record by offering that News World Communications has ties to Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.[2] Thomas then became a White House correspondent and a columnist for King Features Syndicate (Hearst Corporation).

Bush administration

Traditionally, Thomas sat in the front row and asked the first question during White House press conferences, but according to Thomas in a 2006 Daily Show interview, this ended because she no longer represents a wire service. Thomas has since been moved to the back row during press conferences, although she still sits in the front row during press briefings. She is called upon at briefings on a daily basis but no longer ends Presidential news conferences saying "Thank you, Mr. President." Asked why she is now seated in the back row, she said, "Because they don't like me... I ask too mean questions." [3]

On March 21, 2006, Thomas was called upon directly by President Bush for the first time in three years. Thomas asked Bush about the war in Iraq:

" I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it? "

Bush responded by discussing the overall "war on terror", and stated as a reason for the invasion, that Saddam Hussein chose to deny inspectors and not to disclose.[4] Thomas was criticized by conservative commentators for her exchange with Bush. [5]

Thomas has publicly expressed her opinion about Bush. After a speech at a Society of Professional Journalists banquet, she told an autograph seeker who asked why she was sad, "I'm covering the worst president in American history." The autograph seeker was a sports writer for the Daily Breeze and her comments were published. After she was not called upon during a press conference for the first time in over four decades, she wrote to the president to apologize.[6] She also told The Hill "The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself. All we need is another liar... I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does."[7]

At a student journalism conference hosted by the Center for American Progress on June 2, 2006, Thomas opined that many journalists did not give accurate, critical reports on the Iraq War. She said she hopes for the return of hard reporting, and that the student audience should be "out on the street" in protest instead of sitting in the conference room.

At the July 18, 2006 White House press briefing, Thomas remarked, "The United States is not that helpless. It could have stopped the bombardment of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis...we have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine." Press Secretary Tony Snow responded, "Thank you for the Hezbollah view." [8]

On July 12, 2007, Thomas accused President Bush of starting the Iraq War as his "war of choice" and insisted that he alone could end it anytime he wanted to by handing it over to the United Nations.

Thomas has also been critical of the United States Congress. At a question and answer session held at Drake University on September 27, 2007, Thomas said that the "gutless wonder Congress doesn't have the courage to do what it needs to do" regarding the war.

Thomas took time to discuss her career in an interview with John Palmer on Retirement Living TV.[9]