The First Lady of the Press

By Elizabeth DiNovella, The Progressive. Posted August 19, 2004.

Helen Thomas, known as "the first lady of the press," has been reporting on the Presidency for forty-four years. As a White House correspondent for United Press International, she began covering the Kennedy White House. She was not assigned to the beat – she just started showing up.

For decades, Thomas could be seen sitting in the front row during Presidential press conferences, often asking the first question. In her memoir, "Front Row at the White House," she writes, "When it comes to the Presidential news conference, I have never lost my sense of awe that I am able to quiz a President of the United States – politely I hope, but if necessary to hold his feet to the fire." Elsewhere in the book, she quotes Richard Nixon as telling her, "You always ask tough questions, tough questions not in the sense of being unfair, but hard to generalize the answers."

Thomas has built a remarkable career as a journalist. She rose through the ranks to become UPI White House bureau chief. She's covered the day-to-day workings of the White House longer than any other correspondent. And she was the first woman to hold posts in the White House Correspondents' Association and the National Press Club. She left UPI in 2000 and now writes a syndicated column twice a week for the Hearst newspapers.

Thomas no longer sits in the front row during Presidential news conferences, a privilege traditionally reserved for wire service reporters. When I caught up with her in Washington, D.C., in April, I asked her if she missed asking the first question. "No. I just want the questions to be asked," Thomas replied. "It doesn't matter whether I ask them. No leader should get off the hook when they take people to war."

I also called her in late June to ask her opinion of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

The White House press corps was pretty tame after 9/11, but now they are starting to challenge the President. What happened?

I think they are coming out of their coma. They finally are realizing they've been had. They finally 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 briefings 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 finally 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.

60 Minutes held the Abu Ghraib torture story for nearly two weeks. Should the press hold stories upon the request of the Pentagon?

They would have to have a real good reason. You don't want to do anything to jeopardize lives. But otherwise I wouldn't abide by the request. I think definitely it should be done if it involves the lives of human beings.

Why do Bush's press conferences sound so scripted?

Bush has a seating chart and he knows who he is going to call on. He picks the people. He's been told to not call on me because I am going to ask a very tough question, such as, Why are we there? Why are we killing people in their own country? How can we? On what basis? I mean, if you want to go after terrorists, good. But Iraq had nothing to do with it.

This President has not had many press conferences. Do you think the Bush administration values the opportunity to talk with the press?

Hell, no. He's forced to. It's absolutely necessary because we are there in their face. But he doesn't hold enough news conferences. It's far short of anybody else. And when he appears with a head of state and they try to act like it's a news conference, it's not. He says, "I'll take two questions here and two questions on that side," and there's no follow-up. He gets mad if it is a two-part question. I mean, c'mon. 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.

Elizabeth DiNovella is Culture Editor of The Progressive.

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