NOT ALL WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS ARE PUSHOVERS
By Norman Solomon / Creators Syndicate
At 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., reporters usually shuffle along to a snoozy
beat. But anyone who denigrates the mainstream media in general, or the
White House press corps in particular, should acknowledge that exceptional
journalists do strive to ask deeper questions while most colleagues go
through the motions.
The latest in a long line of presidential spinners, Ari Fleischer,
began a news conference on Jan. 6 with a nice greeting: "Good afternoon and
happy New Year to everybody." But his bonhomie didn't last more than a
minute.
"At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the president deplored
the taking of innocent lives," Helen Thomas began. "Does that apply to all
innocent lives in the world?"
It was a simple question -- and, unfortunately, an extraordinary one.
Few journalists at the White House move beyond the subtle but powerful ties
that bind reporters and top officials in Washington. Routinely, shared
assumptions are the unspoken name of the game.
In this case, Thomas wasn't playing -- and Fleischer's new year wasn't
exactly off to a great start. His tongue moved, but he declined to answer
the question. Instead, he parried: "I refer specifically to a horrible
terrorist attack on Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds."
Of course that attack was reprehensible. But Thomas had asked whether
President Bush deplored the taking of "all innocent lives in the world."
And Fleischer didn't want to go there.
But Helen Thomas, an 82-year-old journalist who has been covering the
White House for several decades, was not to be deterred by the flack's
sleight-of-tongue maneuver. "My follow-up is," she persisted, "why does he
want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?"
On a dime, Fleischer spun paternal and nationalistic. "Helen, the
question is how to protect Americans, and our allies and friends --"
What Fleischer had just called "the question" was actually his
question. He had no use for hers.
Thomas responded: "They're not attacking you. Have they [the Iraqis]
laid the glove on you or on the United States ... in 11 years?"
Fleischer laced his retort with sarcasm. "I guess you have forgotten
about the Americans who were killed in the first Gulf War as a result of
Saddam Hussein's aggression then."
"Is this revenge," Thomas replied, "11 years of revenge?"
The man in charge of White House spin revved up the RPMs. "Helen, I
think you know very well that the president's position is that he wants to
avert war ... "
But the journalist refused to jettison her original, still-unanswered
question. She asked: "Would the president attack innocent Iraqi lives?"
"The president wants to make certain that he can defend our country
... "
Thomas would not back off. She demanded to know whether Bush thinks
the Iraqi people "are a threat to us."
At that point, Fleischer went off message with a weird statement. "The
Iraqi people are represented by their government," said the man speaking
for the president of the United States. A journalist's persistence had led
him to put foot in polished mouth.
Some people like to play "Hail to the Chief." I would prefer to say
"Hail to the dean of the Washington press corps -- Helen Thomas." She knows
that asking truly tough questions involves a lot more than echoing partisan
ping-pong.
After 57 years as a reporter for United Press International, she quit
UPI in 2000 when it was bought by News World Communications, a firm
affiliated with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's right-wing Unification Church.
(Among its holdings is The Washington Times.) Since then, Thomas has been
writing an incisive syndicated column for Hearst Newspapers.
In a speech at MIT a couple of months ago, Helen Thomas told the
audience: "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter." Media
professionals are frequently unwilling to say in public what they know in
private. When a mainstream journalist breaks out of self-censorship, the
public benefits.
Day in and day out, Helen Thomas is conspicuous for her fortitude at
White House press conferences. And let's also give credit to an intrepid
newcomer at such press follies. The other day, Russell Mokhiber of the
Corporate Crime Reporter was asking a simple question that went unanswered:
"Ari, other than Elliott Abrams, how many convicted criminals are on the
White House staff?"
You can find transcripts of Mokhiber's many exchanges with Fleischer
posted at www.commondreams.org -- under the heading "Ari and I" -- examples
of unflinching questions and slimy evasions at the White House.
Thank you, Helen Thomas. Thank you, Russell Mokhiber. It sure is
refreshing to see journalists doing their jobs instead of going along to
get along.
_____________________________________
Norman Solomon is co-author, with foreign correspondent Reese Erlich, of
"Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You" (Context Books), to be
published in late January.
