Helen Thomas was a friend to Vermont Woman, pictured here with publisher Sue Gillis (left) in 2006
in South Burlington at Helen’s third appearance at the Vermont Woman’s Speaker Series. (photo: Margaret Michniewicz)

Helen Thomas died on July 20, 2013. She was 92. Her career included many firsts. She was United Press International’s first woman correspondent; the first woman member, and then president, of the White House Correspondents Association and Gridiron Club, the only woman print journalist to travel with Nixon to China on Air Force One. Her peers named her Dean of the White House Press Corps. She sat in the front row center seat in the White House Press room, often in her signature red dress, until her retirement in 2010. She famously closed each presidential briefing session with, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

She was a friend to Vermont Woman, coming to speak at events on three separate occasions.

Proud to Know Her

Helen Thomas was world renowned for her tenacious questioning of ten U.S. Presidents, their positions and policies, from JFK to Obama. Throughout her 70-year career, Helen burst through glass ceiling after glass ceiling, benefitting women journalists right up to the present. After covering JFK in the presidential campaign for United Press International (UPI), she became the first woman in print journalism to join the Corps. Almost single-minded, she achieved unprecedented access to the country’s most powerful, through sheer persistence and boldness, and by working long hours every day.

In the last ten years of her White House Corps career, after leaving UPI (which was sold to the Unification Church, a.k.a. Moonies), Helen became a columnist for Hearst News Service. In this position, Helen transitioned from objective reporter to an opinionated columnist. She then freely conflated her opinions with a confrontational, probing style, astonishing presidents and press secretaries alike, yet earning the respect of most colleagues.

A critic of war, including the Iraq War, Helen stood apart from most of the press corps by continuously asking the toughest questions, causing presidents to shudder and bristle. Expressing skepticism of the Bush administrations’ false and trumped up reasons for invading Iraq, she confronted him with “Why did you decide to invade Iraq?” W. bumbled, declaring he was “after the Taliban,” and Helen shot back with, “I am talking about Iraq.” There was no Taliban in Iraq at the time of invasion.

W. then forced her to a rear seat for the duration of his second term. It did not stop Helen. She publicly pressured her peers, whom she believed had rolled over on the subject of Iraq by not asking more probing questions. She believed that they feared being called unpatriotic. If W denied them access, their jobs (and the corporations they worked for) could be jeopardized.

Press Responsibility

In 2003, she published Watchdogs of Democracy: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.

In 2006, comedian Stephen Colbert showed a clever video parody to the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which put a glaring spotlight on W., who was present, exposing his lies. In the video, Colbert refuses to answer a question from a real life Helen Thomas, and then tries to run and escape as she tries to corner him. (See this video at YouTube.)

Helen Thomas was keynote speaker at three of Vermont Woman’s special events, coming first in 1986, and then again in 2003 and 2006. Each time she spoke to a full house and standing ovations, talking passionately about presidential overreach, cover ups, secrecy, political war-mongering, and the history of slaughter, pain and grief in the name of religion.

She shared candid anecdotes and stories about the presidents she covered, and in 2006 she spoke to us about her support for Hillary over Obama for President, saying Obama was too green and naïve to manage the complexities of Congressional and world discord. Most of all she spoke vehemently about the critical importance of a free and independent press and responsible journalism. She advocated powerfully, urging journalists to question why and demand answers.

Where Were Her Questions?

Helen always presented herself to the public as a watchdog journalist for all the people, which is why Helen’s anti-Semitic remarks in 2010 came as such a surprise to so many of us. Her caustic but clearly articulated remarks—“Jews should get the hell out of Palestine and go back to where they all came from….Poland, Germany, wherever. America.”—set off a firestorm of criticism from which she would never recover.

As the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, she apparently felt a strong emotional connection to the Arab side of the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps, as many of her peers and obits suggested, she faltered because she was 89, an age when almost no one is alive or, if so, most certainly not actively engaged in a full-time public career.

Her apology that she “deeply regretted her remarks,” and that “they did not reflect her heartfelt belief that peace would come to the Middle East only when all parties embraced mutual respect and tolerance” was not enough. Her remarks did not square with her public persona as a dogged questioner. Where were her questions regarding centuries of persecution of Jews in every country in the world? She resigned.

Unasked Questions

Helen blundered badly, no question about it. She was an American journalist, her career made possible by Americans of many different backgrounds, including many Jews. Her clearly anti-Semitic remarks tarnished her legacy. It is disturbing and unsettling to all of us who thought we really knew her. We have a sense now, that we cannot really know what goes on inside another person’s head, nor what they truly are thinking, whether neighbors, family, work associates or public servants. Yet in Washington D.C., where the powerful are rarely held accountable for anything including war atrocities and corporate corruption, Helen Thomas paid a big price.

Perhaps, it is more important than ever to remember Helen Thomas as a journalist who believed and practiced — that no matter who is in power, the principles of watchdog journalism are nothing but patriotic and are essential pillars of a successful democracy.

What did Thomas teach us? The Iraq war is generally now considered a disaster. What did we learn? Wars and conflicts will keep coming. Syria is pending.

Imperfect as she was, Helen was a rare, rough-cut gem, whose sharp edges cut through a lot of political mumbo-jumbo. Her spirited brand of journalism inspired women and men alike for many, many years, and will for a long time. She serves to remind us that everyone is flawed, and yet it’s important to stand up, to speak out, and to demand answers to difficult questions.