Helen Thomas to speak at
April 9th, 2007
The McDaniel College web site calls to our attention that “Author and veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas… Dean of the White House press corps … will speak at 7:30 p.m. April 12 in McDaniel College’s Forum, located in
The lecture, "From JFK to George W.: Holding their feet to the fire, Helen-style," is free and open to the public.
For more information click here: http://www.mcdaniel.edu/6629.htm
No doubt the “queen of combativeness and irrationality” will certainly enlighten us with “the Hezbollah view” of the
If you are considering going, for sheer entertainment please watch the video posted on July 18th, 2006 on the web site “Outside the Beltway” by Greg Tinti: “Snow To Thomas: “Thank You For The Hezbollah View” (Video)
Mr. Tinti writes, “Although that’s the quotable moment of this exchange between Tony Snow and Helen Thomas, the entire thing is worth watching simply for its entertainment value alone. It’s old school Helen Thomas, trying to ‘Scott McClellan’ Tony Snow. And somehow Tony has already mastered the art of dealing with the queen of combativeness and irrationality. It’s really quite impressive.”
The entertainment is also featured on YouTube: “Tony Snow Making Helen Thomas Look Like A Fool.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICq2AuxYTTE
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For a glimpse of perhaps we will hear from Ms. Thomas can be found here: “Helen Thomas on the Media's Failure.” One of the interesting quotes is when she pronounces condescendingly, “everybody with a laptop thinks they’re journalists - that’s a problem…”
Posted May 12th, 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5qv6U2AQo
“Journalist Helen Thomas discusses the failure of the media in covering the
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Want more?
Posted April 06, 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWNf0lmuRcc
Fox Watch: Media Matters for
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As one can quickly and easily see, Ms. Thomas will probably be a hit at
Liberals love her. Conservatives find her cringe worthy at best. To understand why; perhaps Ms. Thomas said it best in a November 6, 2002 account of her presentation at the
“‘I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter,’ said Thomas, who is now a columnist for Hearst News Service. ‘Now I wake up and ask myself, “Who do I hate today?”’ Her short list of answers seems not to vary from war, President Bush, timid office-holders, a muffled press and cowed citizens, pretty much in that order.”
[…]
"Helen Thomas offered a very powerful indictment of the current behavior of the Bush presidency in her comments on the incoherence and inconsistency of Bush's policies and the danger to civil liberties of Bush's rhetoric," said (MacVicar Faculty Fellows David) Thorburn, (professor of literature.)
[…]
Read the rest here: “Journalist Helen Thomas condemns Bush administration.”
Arin Gencer, writing for the
Terry A. Dalton, an English and journalism professor at McDaniel, had originally called Thomas "out of the blue" to see if she would visit his media and politics class, he said.
[…]
Thomas is known for her persistent and pointed questions in news briefings, particularly with respect to the war in
As a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, she spends her days not only speaking but writing what's on her mind.
Or, as Thomas puts it in her book, Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President: "After all those years of telling it like it is, now I can tell it how I want it to be."
At McDaniel, she is expected to do just that.
Read the rest of the
Professor Dalton remarked in the Arin Gencer piece:
… a book he recently started having students read brought Thomas to mind.
That book was former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer's Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House, which details his encounters with White House reporters.
"He mentioned Helen far more by name than any other reporter. ... He gave her a pretty hard time,"
He was delighted when she agreed, he said.
In a March 12, 2003 article in Slate by Jack Shafer, entitled, “Screw You, Mr. President,” it is noted:
… Her loathing for Bush is palpable. "This is the worst president ever," she told the
Though Thomas never masked her crush on Democrats when she worked as a news writer, she comes completely out of the closet in her columns, ripping "Bush's headlong drive into war, his favor-the-rich economic policy and his campaign to put right-wing ideologues on the Supreme Court." As the child of Lebanese immigrants, Thomas knows exactly which religious button she's pushing when she repeatedly condemns Bush's plans for war on
Some insight as to Mr. Fleischer’s point of view can be found in Mr. Shafer’s 2003 Slate article:
But Thomas' opinion columns are a model of restraint when compared with the snarky speeches she delivers in lieu of asking questions at White House briefings. In the past, Ari Fleischer usually gave Thomas first shot, and in recent weeks she rode a constant theme:
Thomas to Fleischer: Will you state for the record, for the historical record, why [Bush] wants to bomb Iraqi people? —March 5, 2003
Thomas to Fleischer: [W]hy is [Bush] going to bomb them? I mean, how do you bomb people back to democracy? This is a question of conquest. They didn't ask to be "liberated" by the
Mr. Shafer concluded:
“We could applaud her for stripping the varnish off standard-issue White House lies with her acerbic questions, but rarely are her questions tailored to produce an intelligent response from Fleischer. When you repeatedly ask the question, "Why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?" you're mostly venting your spleen.”
[…]
“Which brings us to the saddest part of Thomas' decline: She often raises serious questions that are on lots of people's minds—questions that other critical journalists in the press corps might want to pose. But when spoken by Thomas' lecturing lips first, the questions sound absurd. She ends up taking the air out of the room for intelligent criticism of the president and helps make the press corps look like a Saturday Night Live skit. You can almost hear Fleischer squealing behind closed doors after the briefings: Thank God for Helen Thomas!
If Professor Dalton is bringing Ms. Thomas to McDaniel so that she may give McDaniel journalism students advice; insight as to what she will say can be found in her November 2002 MIT presentation:
“Asked to advise young journalists, Thomas pounced. ‘Remind the politicians you interview that you pay them, that they are public servants. Remember every question is legitimate. And don't give up. There's always a leak. There's always someone who's trying to save the country,’ she said.”
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For additional background, the AEI Speaker’s Bureau says:
Commonly referred to as "The First Lady of the Press," former White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas is a trailblazer, breaking through barriers for women reporters while covering every President since John F. Kennedy. For 57 years, Helen also served as White House correspondent for United Press International. She recently left this post and joined Hearst Newspapers as a syndicated columnist.
Born in
For 12 years, Helen wrote radio news for UPI, her work day beginning at 5:30am. Eventually she covered the news of the Federal government, including the FBI and Capitol Hill.
In November, 1960, Helen Thomas began covering then President elect John F. Kennedy, following him to the White House in January, 1961 as a member of the UPI team. It was during this first White House assignment that Thomas began closing presidential press conferences with "Thank you, Mr. President."
In September, 1971, Pat Nixon scooped Helen by announcing her engagement to Associated Press' retiring White House correspondent, Douglas B. Cornell at a White house party hosted by then President Nixon in honor of Cornell.
Thomas was the only woman print journalist traveling with then President Nixon to
Helen Thomas has written three books, including her latest, Thanks for the Memories Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House.
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