Helen Thomas

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Helen Thomas (1976)

Helen Amelia Thomas (born August 4, 1920 in Winchester , Kentucky , † July 20, 2013 in Washington, DC ) was an American journalist of Lebanese origin. She was the longest serving member of the White House Press Corps , a group of correspondents who regularly cover US government press conferences at the White House . Thomas has accompanied the Presidents of the United States from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and was the first female member of the White House Correspondents' Association . In her later years, she was a critic of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy and attracted attention for anti-Zionist statements, whereupon Wayne State University stopped giving the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in Media Award .

Life

Early years

Helen Thomas was born in Winchester, Kentucky, to a Greek Orthodox Lebanese immigrant. She grew up in Detroit , where she studied Liberal Arts at Wayne University from 1938 to 1942 . Even during her student days, Thomas wrote articles for the campus newspaper .

After graduating from college, Thomas took a job with the Washington Daily News . She became a reporter within a few months, but was released after a journalists' strike. In 1943 Thomas found a new job in the Washington office of the United Press news agency , which later became part of United Press International (UPI). She assisted the reporters, analyzed the news ticker and prepared reports for the United Press radio program . In 1955, Thomas resumed her work as a reporter. In the years that followed, she reported from various institutions and departments in the Washington government district, including the Department of Justice , the Department of Health , the United States Postal Service , the Federal Communications Commission and the FBI .

From 1959 to 1960, Helen Thomas served as the presidency of the Women's National Press Club . In this capacity, she visited the Soviet Union in October 1960 . During this trip, Thomas followed the television debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in the run-up to the US presidential election . Fascinated by Kennedy's appearance, Helen Thomas decided to follow the path of the winner of the presidential election to the White House. Thomas wrote articles on the Kennedy family , particularly John F. Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline Kennedy , and gave a detailed account of the birth of John F. Kennedy Jr. Late November 1960. After John F. Kennedy took office, Helen Thomas continued to observe the President and support the UPI correspondents in their reporting.

White House correspondent

From John F. Kennedy's inauguration onwards, Helen Thomas accompanied all US presidents as a reporter. She soon represented UPI's Washington office director Albert Merriman Smith at daily press conferences at the White House. After Smith's death in 1970, Thomas became an official White House correspondent. She continued the tradition established by Smith of ending presidential press conferences with "Thank you, Mr. President." This final sentence developed into her trademark until she refused to adopt George W. Bush as an open critic of his Iraq policy.

Helen Thomas established herself as a persistent questioner during the Vietnam War , who, above all, asked the president uncomfortable questions in the press conferences. As the first correspondent in the White House, Thomas had taken on a pioneering role in the emancipation of women in the US media landscape; when the National Press Club first accepted female members in early 1971 , Helen Thomas was elected treasurer of the press club . In the same year she married the journalist Douglas B. Cornell. Cornell died in 1982 of complications from Alzheimer's disease .

Since Richard Nixon's presidency, she has also regularly accompanied the presidents on their trips abroad. In February 1972, Helen Thomas was the only woman among the selected group of journalists who accompanied Nixon's historic trip to China, which represented the climax of the so-called ping-pong diplomacy between Beijing and Washington. During the Watergate affair , Thomas' interviews with Martha Mitchell, wife of former Attorney General John N. Mitchell , caused a stir. In 1974, shortly after Nixon's resignation, Thomas was appointed chief correspondent for UPI in Washington. In 1975 she assumed the presidency of the White House Correspondents' Association and became the first woman to become a member of the Gridiron Club , Washington's oldest press club. A year later, Helen Thomas was described by the World Almanac as one of the 25 most influential women in the United States.

Helen Thomas has become a Washington institution and celebrity herself over the decades. In addition to the closing words “Thank you, Mr. President”, Thomas also regularly opened the US presidents' press conferences with the first question. In the 1990s she made guest appearances in the films Dave and Hello Mr. President . In 1998, Thomas became the first recipient of the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award from the White House Correspondents' Association, named after her .

On May 17, 2000, Helen Thomas resigned abruptly from her post as UPI correspondent. UPI was on the eve of the News World Communications of the founder of the Unification Church , Sun Myung Moon been bought up.

Columnist for Hearst

President George W. Bush congratulates Helen Thomas on her 86th birthday during a press conference.

Just two months after retiring from UPI, 79-year-old Helen Thomas returned to the political scene in July 2000 as a columnist for Hearst Corporation . At the end of the year, Thomas made an appearance in the short film Final Days , in which Bill Clinton parodied himself as the outgoing president.

A difficult relationship developed with Clinton's successor, George W. Bush. The columnist known as a left-wing liberal turned out to be a tough critic of Bush. She regularly engaged in disputes with government spokespersons during briefings , but was increasingly ignored in presidential press conferences because she was no longer active as a correspondent, but only as a columnist. Two weeks before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003, Helen Thomas was one of the journalists who were no longer called upon by President Bush in the press conference that critics regarded as a staging.

In the years that followed, Helen Thomas was passed over by the President at all of Bush's press conferences, but presented herself as one of the toughest opponents of the Iraq war in her columns and press briefings. It wasn't until March 21, 2006 that George W. Bush asked himself Thomas' questions again in a sensational battle of words.

When comedian Stephen Colbert gave a satirical eulogy at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in late April 2006 in the presence of Bush, a video was shown in which Colbert, Bush's new spokesman, was rushed through the streets of Washington by Helen Thomas To finally get the question of why the United States invaded Iraq.

Helen Thomas (2009)

In 2007, after 46 years, Helen Thomas threatened to lose her regular seat in the renovated James S. Brady Press Briefing Room . The White House Correspondents' Association decided to keep Thomas in the front row in recognition of their achievements.

Helen Thomas was portrayed in Rory Kennedy's television documentary Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House in August 2008 .

On February 9, 2009, Thomas was one of the selected journalists called to serve as President of the United States at Barack Obama's first press conference. Obama was the tenth US President to be questioned by Helen Thomas in a press conference.

Rabbi David Nesenoff asked Thomas at an American Jewish Heritage Celebration Day on May 27, 2010 at the White House if she had any comment on Israel . The 89-year-old journalist replied literally: “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine ”. When asked where the Jews should go, she replied: “They should go home” - they should go home, to Poland, Germany, America and “everywhere else”. After violent criticism of her statement, Helen Thomas apologized for her statement and announced on June 7, 2010 that she was retiring.

On December 2, 2010, shortly before her speech at an Arab-American conference in Dearborn , Thomas told reporters that she still stood by what she said to Nesenoff. During the speech, she said: "The US Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are, in my opinion, unquestionably owned by the Zionists." who controls opinion in the US. As a result of these anti-Semitic comments, Wayne State University in Detroit stopped giving the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in Media Award , which it had presented for more than ten years. The reason given by the university was that the prize awarded for diversity of opinion could no longer serve its purpose.

From January 2011 to January 2012 Thomas published columns in the weekly Falls Church News-Press . For health reasons she had to give up this column. Helen Thomas passed away two weeks before her 93rd birthday after a long illness at her home in Washington.

Fonts

  • Dateline: White House . Macmillan, New York 1975, ISBN 0-02-617620-3 .
  • Front Row at the White House - My Life and Times . Scribner, New York 2000, ISBN 0-684-86809-1 .
  • Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President - Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House . Scribner, New York 2003, ISBN 0-7432-0225-2 .
  • Watchdogs of Democracy? - The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public . Scribner, New York 2006, ISBN 0-7432-6781-8 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Helen Thomas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short bio
  2. ^ Helen Thomas: Front Row at the White House , pp. 35-36.
  3. ^ Helen Thomas: Front Row at the White House , pp. 53-55.
  4. ↑ St. Petersburg Times : Martha: Now I'm Happy , July 3, 1972.
  5. ↑ Los Angeles Times : Helen Thomas and Her 6 Presidents. Veteran Reporter's View of the Top , May 1, 1985.
  6. ^ The Washington Post : Thirty Years at the White House , October 21, 1990.
  7. ↑ Chris McGreal (English) . June 7, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010. 
  8. ^ The New York Times : Helen Thomas, Washington Fixture, Resigns as UPI Reporter , May 17, 2000 (accessed October 10, 2008).
  9. ^ The New York Times : Helen Thomas Is Back as a Columnist With Hearst , July 10, 2000 (accessed October 10, 2008).
  10. ↑ Deseret News : Liberal journalist hails truth at Y. , September 24, 2003 (accessed October 10, 2008).
  11. ^ The New York Times : Ari Fleischer, Poet , June 9, 2003 (accessed October 10, 2008).
  12. ^ San Diego Union Tribune: Did press conference follow a script? from March 17, 2003 (accessed October 11, 2008)
  13. ^ The Washington Times : Press Corps Doyenne Gets No Notice , March 7, 2003.
  14. ^ San Francisco Chronicle : Bush tangles with Helen Thomas , March 24, 2006 (accessed October 11, 2008).
  15. ^ The Politico: Helen Thomas Moving Back After 46 Years Down Front , February 21, 2007 (accessed October 11, 2008).
  16. ↑ Helen Thomas Gets Her Front Row Seat Back In White House Press Room; Fox Shunted To Second Row (English) , The Huffington Post . March 17, 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2008. 
  17. ^ The New York Times : New Media Breaks in, but Tradition Lives On , February 10, 2009 (accessed February 11, 2009).
  18. ↑ Video: Helen Thomas Tells Jews - 'Get the Hell Out of Palestine' and Go Back to Germany & Poland
  19. ↑ Sam Stein: Ari Fleischer: Fire Helen Thomas . In: The Huffington Post , June 4, 2010. Retrieved June 5, 2010. 
  20. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 11, 2010 on WebCite )
  21. ^ Helen Thomas stands by remarks about Israelis.
  22. ↑ a b Wayne State ends Helen Thomas Award. UPI.com of December 4, 2010: “United States Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by Zionists. No question, in my opinion. "
  23. ↑ Helen Thomas says Anti-Defamation League is intimidating her. ( June 17, 2013 memento on the Internet Archive ) Detroit Free Press December 9, 2010.
  24. ^ Nicholas F. Benton: The Helen Thomas I Knew: Reflections on Her Last Years by the Editor Who Sought Her Rebound . Falls Church News-Press, July 20, 2013.
  25. ↑ Famous US journalist Helen Thomas died at 92. In: Focus , July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomas, Helen Amelia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Winchester , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH 20th July 2013
Place of death Washington, DC