Relentless journalist and presidential gadfly Helen Thomas has covered every president beginning with John F. Kennedy. For years, as dean of the Washington press corps, she was seated in the front row, was called on for the first question at presidential press conferences, and made famous the phrase “Thank you, Mr. President” at the conference’s end.In tribute to her news career of almost sixty years, and her four books chronicling the White House, Christine Warnke of Hogan & Hartson and publicist Janet Donovan gave a dinner in her honor at Teatro Goldoni. (Photo: Helen Thomas, right, with me; courtesy of Janet Donovan.)
One of the guests, professor and presidential historian Martha Joynt Kumar, attended many of those press conferences too. (Helen credits two of Kumar’s papers for pointing her in the right direction for her books, saying they helped her attain a historical perspective of the presidency.) Otherwise, with a few exceptions, most of the twenty women invited were young, upwardly mobile members of the media, all of whom probably aspire to Helen’s pinnacle. This was a chance for them to listen, learn, and even query, as turns to pose a question went round the dinner table.
Their questions ranged from the serious to the cheeky:
Q: “What would she now like to ask George W. Bush that he avoided answering during his presidency?”
A: “The invasion of Iraq, Mr. President, why?”
Q: “What president would you most like to have slept with?”
A: “None of them!”
Asked about her favorite journalist, she gave a quick answer: her late husband, Doug Cornell, of the Associated Press, for his news sense, his writing skills, and his ability to dictate flawless copy. (Former rivals, he AP, she UPI, they had been dating discreetly, out of sight of the newsroom, but both Helen and Doug were scooped at Doug’s White House retirement party when First Lady Pat Nixon unexpectedly announced their secret wedding plans from the podium.)
Her favorite journalist now? Answer: Sam Donaldson. On hearing this, Sam’s wife, TV correspondent Jan Smith Donaldson, seated next to her, started victoriously pumping the air with her fists. Sam once inscribed a book to Helen: “All the bad habits I have in covering presidents, you taught me. And I am grateful.”
In her latest book, Watchdogs of Democracy?, Helen faults the press for failing the public by being reluctant to carry out its watchdog role, so important in a democracy: questioning the government and probing for the truth.
During the George W. Bush era, Helen was demoted to the back row and seldom called on. (“I ask too many questions,” she explains.) At Barack Obama’s first press conference, however, the new president invited her to ask the first question, and she was again seated in the front row.
Back up where she belongs.
Their questions ranged from the serious to the cheeky:
Q: “What would she now like to ask George W. Bush that he avoided answering during his presidency?”
A: “The invasion of Iraq, Mr. President, why?”
Q: “What president would you most like to have slept with?”
A: “None of them!”
Asked about her favorite journalist, she gave a quick answer: her late husband, Doug Cornell, of the Associated Press, for his news sense, his writing skills, and his ability to dictate flawless copy. (Former rivals, he AP, she UPI, they had been dating discreetly, out of sight of the newsroom, but both Helen and Doug were scooped at Doug’s White House retirement party when First Lady Pat Nixon unexpectedly announced their secret wedding plans from the podium.)
Her favorite journalist now? Answer: Sam Donaldson. On hearing this, Sam’s wife, TV correspondent Jan Smith Donaldson, seated next to her, started victoriously pumping the air with her fists. Sam once inscribed a book to Helen: “All the bad habits I have in covering presidents, you taught me. And I am grateful.”
In her latest book, Watchdogs of Democracy?, Helen faults the press for failing the public by being reluctant to carry out its watchdog role, so important in a democracy: questioning the government and probing for the truth.
During the George W. Bush era, Helen was demoted to the back row and seldom called on. (“I ask too many questions,” she explains.) At Barack Obama’s first press conference, however, the new president invited her to ask the first question, and she was again seated in the front row.
Back up where she belongs.
