Ray, Thanks for posting this. I'm sure Helen Thomas is right.
Keith At 01:44 02/02/03 -0500, you wrote: > Subject: interview with helen thomas > > >> >> >> Doubting Thomas offers her press veteran's take on state of presidency >> >> By: John Bogert >> >> As veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas signed my program >Thursday >> evening at the Society of Professional Journalists' annual awards banquet, >I >> said, "First time I ever asked a reporter for an autograph." >> >> "Thank you, dear," she said, patting my arm. "Don't lose heart." >> >> Those are words that should be engraved at the bottom of every journalism >> degree. That's because I'm not sure that any business can cause a heart to >> be lost or broken faster than this. And Thomas probably knows this better >> than anyone because she began reporting in 1943. >> >> Thomas, in case you've never seen a presidential news conference, is the >> woman who has haunted every U.S. president since JFK. >> >> I can't, in fact, recall a news conference where she wasn't standing >> hawk-like, grilling men who clearly didn't want to begrilled by anyone, >> especially a woman. >> >> Thomas, by the way, is the woman who said, "Thank you, Mr. President," at >> the end of her very first press conference in 1961. >> >> That, I think, is a wonderful tradition that continues to this very day. >It >> shows a little respect to make up for the kind of lack of respect we used >to >> hear from shouters such as Sam Donaldson, the man Ronald Reagan could >never >> quite hear. >> >> I attended this Biltmore Hotel banquet for two reasons - Thomas and Jean >> Adelsman. Jean is the retired managing editor of the Breeze and the >> recipient Thursday evening of a Journalist of the Year award, along with >> Judy Muller of ABC News, Kitty Felde of KPCC's "Talk of the City," Sue >> Manning of The Associated Press and USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky. >> >> Odd how the world breathlessly awaits the Golden Globes while honors >> presented the people who watch the politicians or work for a cancer cure >are >> as obscure as lice. In fact, there's a joke about the Golden Globes and >the >> foreign press that presents them. It's said that on ceremony night you >can't >> find a waiter anywhere in town. Take this from someone who once sat at >> another banquet with the foreign press - a group composed of a dry cleaner >> from Pacoima, a large Eastern European woman in a turban and an Egyptian >> shoe salesman who spent the evening trying to cadge free drinks. Now that >I >> think of it, they aren't much different from domestic journalists. >> >> Except when it comes to Thomas, who - to the 100 or so people in that >room - >> is the very essence of celebrity, a woman who dedicated 60 years at United >> Press International and Hearst to afflicting the elected. >> >> Keep in mind that Thomas came up in the bad old days. Unlike Thursday >night, >> when four of five honorees were women, she spent decades proving herself >to >> the male hierarchy. >> >> As late as 1972 she was the only woman on the Nixon China trip. Still, she >> survives in a Washington press corps that she says has gone soft, >accepting >> presidential spin without question. >> >> There was a lot of that in her speech, this talk of devaluation in the >> character of leadership. Not surprisingly for an admitted liberal, she >held >> her greatest praise for John Kennedy, the only president in her estimation >> who made Americans look to their higher angels. >> >> Then came Johnson's Great Society and Vietnam. Nixon, she said, was a man >> who would - when presented two roads - "always choose the wrong one." He >was >> followed by "healing" Ford, well-meaning Carter, Reagan's revolution, Bush >> Sr.'s self-destruction and Clinton's damaging of the presidential myth. >> >> She seemed to have sympathy and affection for everyone but George W. Bush, >a >> man who she said is rising on a wave of 9-11 fear - fear of looking >> unpatriotic, fear of asking questions, just fear. "We have," she said, >"lost >> our way." >> >> Thomas believes we have chosen to promote democracy with bombs instead of >> largess while Congress "defaults," Democrats cower and a president >controls >> all three branches of government in the name of corporations and the >> religious right. >> >> As she signed my program, I joked, "You sound worried." >> >> "This is the worst president ever," she said. "He is the worst president >in >> all of American history." >> >> The woman who has known eight of them wasn't joking. >> >> Publish Date:January 19, 2003 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
