Sue. This is Helen. Of course I will come speak – Vermonters are a great audience... So I’ll be there, just have to juggle a few things. Send me an e- ticket. Tell ’em I have plenty to say.”
“Helen” is none other than the indomitable 85-year-old Helen Thomas. For 57 years, the veteran journalist and former United Press International (UPI) Bureau Chief has covered the White House, from the administrations of JFK to Bush 43. Thomas became a national press star in part because, as “Dean” of the White House Press Corps, she earned the right to pose the first question at Kennedy’s press briefings, which were the first administration’s to be televised. Closing each press conference – always from her front row seat, and almost always in her signature red dress, Thomas would say “Thank you, Mr. President” to which Kennedy would reply, “Thank you, Helen.”
That’s the way it was for the next 40 years. Until George W. Bush. Her question, at his first press conference – “Why do you refuse to respect the wall between the church and state? And you know that the mixing of religion and government for centuries has led to slaughter. I mean, the very fact that our country has stood in good stead by having a separation; why do you break it down?” – led to her banishment to the back of the room by this administration. She was not called on again for three years.
Thomas’ just-released new book, Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public is an incisive critique of the White House Press Corps, the press secretaries, and the chief executives Thomas has worked amidst since 1960.
She fiercely defends the responsibility of the press to hold elected officials accountable as the most essential pillar of our democracy. She is dismayed and alarmed with what she calls the “subdued, compromised lapdogs” that today’s journalists have become. She is particularly critical of their failure to ask the tough questions leading up to the Iraq War, a dire lapse, with devastating consequences.
Readers – especially journalism students – will appreciate Thomas’ interviews with several of America’s top journalists, as well as the inclusion of an enlightening and fascinating perspective on the origins of American journalism, its glory days, and its current demise.
Retiring from UPI after it was sold to the owners of the conservative Washington Times, today Thomas is a columnist with Hearst Publications. In that role Thomas can and does speak out, relentlessly asking questions no one else will.
“No wonder presidents have shuddered at this woman’s approach for four decades! She has a razor tongue and a rapier wit and an equal-opportunity approach to deploying them,” noted the Washington Post.
We are honored to present Helen Thomas as the keynote speaker for our third annual Vermont Woman Newspaper Lecture Series on Sunday October 29th at 2 p.m. at the Sheraton Emerald Ballroom in South Burlington, Vermont.
Thomas will deliver her assessment of the past three years in the White House, the Bush administration, the war, homeland security, the state of the press, and her predictions for the upcoming ‘06 and ‘08 elections – and plenty of surprises. She will take questions from the audience and sign books.
Revered and feared, Helen delivers regardless.
Advance tickets are available by calling 802-861-6200, or order online www.vermontwoman.com.
