Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas (August 4th, 1920 -) is one to defer famous News agency and chroniqueuse for Hearst Newspapers , accredited with the White House. She worked during fifty-seven years like corresponding and head clerk to the White House of the agency United Close International (UPI). She thus covered the topicality of the presidency since John F. Kennedy. She belongs to several prestigious circles of journalists, of which she often could be the first woman to become member about it. She wrote four books, of which most recent is Watchdogs off Democracy?: The Waning Washington Close Body and How It Has Failed the Public .

Beginning of career

Helen Thomas was born with Winchester (Kentucky) immigrant parents Libanais. It was high with Detroit, according to its studies with the Wayne University where it obtains in 1942 a bachelor' S dismantles. The first contact of Thomas with the world of journalism is a post of coursière of drafting which it obtains with the Washington Daily News , today disappeared. It becomes finally training journalist, but it belongs to a wave of lay-offs in the newspaper.

Helen Thomas joined the agency UPI in 1943, where it writes dispatches on female subjects. Later in the decade, it deals with the chronicle " Names in the news " (" The names which make the info"), and after 1955, it covers the topicality of federal agencies like the Département of Justice, FBI and the Département of Health and the Social services. Thomas was the president of the Women' S National Close Club of 1959 with 1960.

Correspondence of the White House

In November 1960, Thomas starts to follow new president John F. Kennedy. It becomes in January 1961 the corresponding one of UPI to the White House. It is at this station that Thomas is little by little called " the Sitting Buddha " (" The Buddha assis"). It also closes the press conferences consequently sentence: " Thank you, Mr. President " (" Thank you, Mr. the président").

Helen Thomas is only the journalist woman to accompany the president Richard Nixon at the time of her important voyage in China by 1972. It followed several times in official trip presidents Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, and covered all the economic tops.

It later became head clerk at the White House for UPI, where it remained employed until its resignation it, in opposition to the repurchase of UPI by News World Communications, already owner of the Washington Times . Thomas answered the allegations according to which it left UPI because of the preserving reputation of the Washington Times by saying that the true motivation of its departure was the bonds which link News World Corporation and the Secte Moon of Sun Myung Moon. Helen Thomas then became corresponding to the White House and chroniqueuse for the trade union King Features Syndicate (Hearst Corporation).

The Bush Administration

It was of tradition that Thomas sat in the forefront and puts the first question, at the time of the press conferences of the White House. But according to Helen Thomas at the time an interview granted in 2006 to the Daily Show , that is not any more the case because it does not represent any more a News agency. It was thus moved towards the rows of the bottom for the press conferences, even if it assoit always in front of for the points of press. One gives him the word to put questions during the daily briefings but it does not finish any more the presidential press conferences by saying " Thank you, Mr. the président". In answer to the question of knowing why it from now on is placed in the last lines, it answers that it is " because they do not like me… I put questions too méchantes".

March 21st, 2006, president Bush grants to him the word for the first time in three years. Thomas puts a question about the Guerre in Iraq: " I would like to ask you a question, Mr. President, in connection with your decision to invade the Iraq which because death of thousands of Americans and Iraqis and the wounds at the Americans and the Iraqis for a whole life. Each reason given, publicly all at least, finally proved not to be checked. My question is: Why did you want true to leave in war? As of did the moment when you enter the White House, since your Cabinet - your advisers, your people in charge of the information, etc - which was your true will? You said that it was not oil - the continuation of oil, that was not Israel, or anything of other. What is what it was thus? ".

The answer of Bush relates then to the war against terrorism in general, and gives as reason for the invasion the fact that Saddam Hussein chose to prevent the inspectors from doing their work and nothing to reveal on its arsenal.

In the United States, Helen Thomas was criticized thereafter for its question by the conservatives. In France, the event was included in Morning the of Bruce All Saints' day, but in what Daniel Schneidermann judged to be " an academic case of assembly manipulateur" in its emission Freeze frame .

Helen Thomas publicly expressed his opinion in connection with president Bush. After a speech at the time of a banquet organized by the Society off Professional Journalists, she declares with a person asking him an autograph and which wonders about its sad expression: " I cover the worst president of the history of the " United States;. This person who asked him for an autograph finds being a sports correspondent for the Daily Breeze and its comment is published. After receivenot having received the word at the time of a press conference for the first time in forty years, Thomas decides to write to the president to present excuses.

Thomas also declared in The Hill " the day when Dick Cheney will be presented to the presidential election, I will commit suicide. All which we need, it is of another liar… I think that he would like to launch out, but it would be one day sad for the country if it is the cas".

At the time of a conference given in front of students to the Center for American Progress on June 2nd, 2006, Thomas strongly criticizes the journalists who, according to it, do not report the acts of war in Iraq in an exact and critical way. She also states to hope for a return of a true journalism, and adds that the studied public should be in the streets to express rather than sitted in the conference room.

July 18th, 2006, at the time of the point of press of the White House, Helen Thomas, of Lebanese origin, makes the remark that, according to it, " the United States if is not disabled. They could have made stop the bombardment of Lebanon. We have enough control well on the Israelis… We preferred a collective punishment against Lebanon and to Palestine". Tony Snow, spokesperson of the White House, answers then: " Thank you for the point of view for the Hezbollah ".

July 12th, 2007, Helen Thomas shows president Bush to have begun the war in Iraq with its single will, and insists on the fact that only can put a term at it to him at any moment, while referring about it to the the United Nations.

In the new press room, Helen Thomas again sat in the forefront.

Rewards

In November 1976, Helen Thomas was classified among the " the 25 most influential women of Amérique" by the World Almanac
In 1986, Thomas entered to the Michigan Women' S Hall off Famed
In 1989, the Missouri School off Journalism rewarded Thomas for his medal of Missouri for its exemplarity in the profession
In 1998, Thomas received the reward of the International Women' S Media Foundation for the whole of its work
Également in 1998, it is the first nobody to receive a price established with its name by the White House Correspondents Association , called Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award
In 2003, the National Organization for Women decrees to him its Intrepid Award
on May 25th, 2006, Thomas enters the Michigan Walk off Famed in the downtown area of Lansing (Michigan)
on May 20th, 2007, Thomas receives in an honorary way a doctorate of human letters of the Siena College, with Loudonville (State of New York) for its contribution in the destruction of the barrier of kind within journalism.

Books of Helen Thomas

Watchdogs off Democracy? : The Waning Washington Close Body and How It Has Failed the Public (Scribner, 2006) ISBN 0-7432-6781-8
Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Face Row At the White House (Scribner, 2003) ISBN 0-7432-0226-0
Face Row At the White House: My Life and Times (Scribner, 2000) ISBN 0-684-86809-1
Dateline: White House (MacMillan, 1975) ISBN 0-02-617620-3

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