Posted on 01/26/2002 8:27:21 PM PST by SkyPilot
White House reporter shares insights BY JODIE FAWL Lincoln Journal Star
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skipping from civil liberties to Enron to presidential news coverage, longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas regaled members of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Thursday with tales about the highest of the mighty.
"I've always felt privileged to cover the White House and to have that ringside seat to history," she said.
Thomas' career has spanned 60 years and nine presidents. She resigned from United Press International in May 2000 when it was sold to New World Communications, a company controlled by the Unification Church.
"We have all watched Helen on TV," said Gov. Mike Johanns as he introduced her to a chamber audience of about 700 at The Cornhusker. "I told her I feel like we know you so well I should have you over for dinner."
Thomas quickly accepted.
Although her speech was laced with one-liners, witticisms and funny asides, many of her topics were more serious.
For example: "What a difference a day makes," she said. After the Cold War "we thought we would live happily every after. There is no question, we're all playing it by ear. There is no road map for dealing with terrorism."
And she said she was struck by how easily Americans have given up some civil liberties in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
She understands the need for more airport security, Thomas said, but racial profiling, wiretapping and government intrusions on private property are too much.
"We cannot be ruled by fear - that's not us," she said.
As a gimlet-eyed observer of the nation's chief executive, Thomas has come to believe that presidents have the greatest honor: the trust of the American people.
"My feeling is, if they want to go into politics they should forgo their privacy. They should decide when they are five and live like Sunday school teachers."
The whole world - and news coverage of it - has changed since the 1960s, when she started on the presidential watch. Among the most written about: A sexual revolution and a cultural revolution.
She said the press corps followed a "golden rule that if it didn't affect the running of the country, they didn't need to report on it. We weren't protecting anybody."
As President Bill Clinton reached his last days in office, Thomas asked him what White House possession he would like to take with him.
His reply: the rock Neal Armstrong brought back from the moon. Whenever tension filled the Oval Office, Clinton said, he would point to the rock and tell those present to "chill out." The rock was 3.6 billion years old, he said; they needed perspective.
"I think the rock is still there, but I'm not sure," Thomas said.
She also shared with the group her impressions of the presidents she covered.
John F. Kennedy was "inspired," she said, and the current President Bush is "a work in progress."
Richard Nixon "always had two roads to go, and he always took the wrong road."
Thomas said that in the White House press room there is a photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His signed inscription speaks to the uneasy truce between presidents and the grim crowd that records their every utterance: "To reporters - from their devoted victim."
Reach Jodie Fawl at 473-7235 or jfawl@journalstar.com.
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I don't know what her 'papers' say...
('papers' can easily be 'pencil whipped', so it doesn't really matter)
Judging by her appearance Helen has seen all of History unfold...
Firsthand.
Im not saying that her 'first' name was Eve, but I wouldnt rule out Lilith.
Helen Thomas: A [Badly Unfinished] Piece of Work!.
Helen Thomas: Bush a Work in Progress
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NO NOSE FOR NEWS: THE HELEN THOMAS STORY
BUT THE SOFA?? "I think the rock is still there, but I'm not sure," Helen quipped. Her punch line to clinton's response to her question about a -- (only in Helen's mind) -- 'fantasy' -- clinton kleptocracy, was in fact 4th-estate CYA-ing disguised as a joke. Unbeknownst to the always clueless Helen, however, the one-liner she was delivering was indeed a joke; it was the butt of the joke that was her misreport...
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Bush: Helen Thomas a Jerk in Progress
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't President Bush giving someone in the audience the "Hook 'em horns" sign from the University of Texas?
I have no clue who or what Clinton is gesturing to or what he means by it (something "salacious" knowing him) but if you're trying to say that Bush and Clinton are all part of some grand secret conspiracy, I think you're making about as much sense today as you were yesterday when you thought it might be possible that our special forces troops supplied the hand grenades to the prisoners at Mazar e Sharif.
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She said the press corps followed a "golden rule that if it didn't affect the running of the country, they didn't need to report on it. We weren't protecting anybody." Helen Thomas: Bush a Work in Progress
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Helen Thomas is a "death in progress," both physically and journalistically.
Congressman Billybob
Thomas quickly accepted.
Helen Thomas: --Not known for missing a chow line...
Unless you can explain why it's funny to say "new world order" above a picture of President Bush and Clintoon, I don't buy your answer. I noticed that yesterday you had a picture of George from Seinfeld on your homepage with the sentence "Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it." And today you have "remember the red zone." Well, the "red zone" voted for President BUSH, so your comments like "Earth to Bush: remember the red zone" or the bizarre collage you put together don't really make sense.
Well, there you go. But secretly, it's the sign of the NWO!! Be afraid, patriciaruth. Be VERY afraid. :)
Of a Longhorn steer? You betcha I am!
Teehee.
(How would we know?)
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