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An Interview with Helen Thomas, White House Correspondent
- University of Wisconsin Press
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An Interview with Helen Thomas, White House Correspondent Elizabeth DiNovella august 2004 q: The White House press corps was pretty tame after 9/11, but now they are starting to challenge the President. What happened? helen thomas: I think they are coming out of their coma. They Wnally are realizing they’ve been had. They Wnally realized that we went into a war based on false pretenses. And we were very much a part of that. We were the transmission belt for all of the spin and the alleged threats. But there was the aura of 9/11. At these televised brieWngs there was an atmosphere among the reporters that you would be considered unpatriotic or un-American if you were asking any tough questions. Then it segued into a war where the public thought you were jeopardizing the troops if you asked certain questions. So I think we walked the line too much. The press corps is Wnally waking up to the fact that its job is to ask the questions that are so obvious. The American people were asking the questions. And they were wondering why the reporters rolled over and played dead. The President of the United States should be able to answer any question , or at least dance around one. At some time—early and often—he should submit to questioning and be held accountable, because if you don’t have that then you only have one side of the story. The Presidential news conference is the only forum in our society, the only institution, where a President can be questioned. If a leader is not questioned, he can rule by edict or executive order. He can be a king or a dictator. Who’s to challenge him? We’re there to pull his chain and to ask the questions that should be asked every day, for every move. q: How did you see your role when you were a wire service reporter? thomas: Straight reporting. Just the facts, ma’am. I wrote dull copy because I was afraid even a verb would sound pejorative or judgmental. I can honestly say I was never accused of slant in my copy. But I never bowed out of the human race since the moment I was born. I permitted myself to think, to care, to believe. q: Who was your favorite President to cover? thomas: Kennedy and Johnson. Kennedy because I think it was the most inspired. I thought he had his eyes on the stars, that he knew where the country should be going. He told young people to give something back to the country. He had ideals. And Johnson moved a mountain the Wrst two years in oªce. He got through Medicare, civil rights, voting rights for blacks in the South, federal aid to education at all levels from Head Start through college, child and maternal health, public housing, you name it. It was phenomenal. 196 part 9 freeing the media q: Even after 9/11, when the press was really tame, there were still charges by some people in the press that there was a liberal media. Do you agree? thomas: I’m dying to Wnd another friend. I am a liberal. I was a liberal the day I was born, and I will be until the day I die. What’s a liberal? I care about the poor, the sick, and the maimed. I care whether we go to war for unjust causes. I care whether we shoot people who are innocent. There’s no such thing as a liberal media. I think we have a very conservative press. Read the columnists. They are predominantly conservative. I don’t relate to them at all. I’m looking for another liberal. q: But there was a time when there were more liberal voices. thomas: There were more. But the press has moved with the country to the right. There was a Ronald Reagan revolution. There were many more liberals in the Great Depression, World War II. They had heart and soul and compassion. Reporters see so much more than anyone else, really, if they open their eyes. It’s their job to take a very human approach. I don’t see how you can see what’s all around you and not be liberal. You see the poor. You see the hungry. You see the su¤ering. —Elizabeth DiNovella is the culture editor of The Progressive and a volunteer at WORT-FM, the community...