[Oe List ...] More Helen Thomas

[george]

She's been saying much the same thing for some time.  Here's a 2002 
article from M.I.T.
George Holcombe

Journalist Helen Thomas condemns Bush administration

  Sarah H. Wright, News Office
November 6, 2002

Veteran journalist Helen Thomas brought the grit and whir of a White 
House press conference to Bartos Theater on Monday evening, speaking 
with passion about the media's role in a democracy whose leaders seem 
eager for war.

  Actually, the 82-year-old former United Press International reporter 
didn't just speak: she surged into her topic, giving everyone present 
an immediate sense of the grumpy wit and fierce precision that gave her 
reporting on American presidents Kennedy through Bush II such a 
competitive and lasting edge.

  "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter," said Thomas, 
who is now a columnist for Hearst News Service. "Now I wake up and ask 
myself, 'Who do I hate today?'" Her short list of answers seems not to 
vary from war, President Bush, timid office-holders, a muffled press 
and cowed citizens, pretty much in that order.

  Angered by what she views as the Bush administration's "bullying 
drumbeat," Thomas referred early and often to her own hatred of war, 
quoting from poets and politicians to bear down on President Bush and 
his colleagues.

  Winston Churchill, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Louis Brandeis, George 
Santayana, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. 
all made appearances in Thomas' sweeping portrayal of what she sees as 
the administration's betrayal of both the character and will of the 
American people and the principles of democracy.

  "I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go to war. 
Bush's policy of pre-emptive war is immoral - such a policy would 
legitimize Pearl Harbor. It's as if they learned none of the lessons 
from Vietnam," she said to enthusiastic applause.

  Thomas ignored the clapping just as she once ignored the camera 
flashes and shouting matches of the Washington press corps.

  "Where is the outrage?" she demanded. "Where is Congress? They're 
supine! Bush has held only six press conferences, the only forum in our 
society where a president can be questioned. I'm on the phone to [press 
secretary] Ari Fleischer every day, asking will he ever hold another 
one? The international world is wondering what happened to America's 
great heart and soul."

  Like any star, Thomas, who resigned from UPI in 2000, appreciated her 
audience's thirst to get the insider's view of our national leaders, 
and she gave generously, in snapshots, though the Reagan and both Bush 
regimes were cast in darker hues.

  "Great presidents have great goals for mankind. During my years of 
covering the White House, Kennedy was the most inspired; Johnson rammed 
through voting rights and public housing; Nixon will be remembered for 
his trip to China and for his resignation; Ford for helping us recover 
from Nixon; and Carter for making human rights the centerpiece of 
foreign policy," Thomas said in an even, respectful tone. She just 
sighed over Clinton, who "tarnished the Oval Office."

  Thomas' mood became visibly more somber at the mention of Ronald 
Reagan's military buildup and at the name Bush. Again and again, Thomas 
warned the MIT audience, "It's bombs away for Iraq and on our civil 
liberties if Bush and his cronies get their way. Dissent is patriotic!"

  After her talk, Thomas participated in a panel discussion with 
MacVicar Faculty Fellows David Thorburn, professor of literature, and 
Charles Stewart III, professor of political science. Philip S. Khoury, 
dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, introduced 
the speakers.

  "Helen Thomas offered a very powerful indictment of the current 
behavior of the Bush presidency in her comments on the incoherence and 
inconsistency of Bush's policies and the danger to civil liberties of 
Bush's rhetoric," said Thorburn.

  He compared the lack of public awareness of an antiwar movement in 
1965 and 1966 with the wide public debate about Iraq going on today. 
"An aroused citizenry can instruct the government," he said.

  Stewart also focused on the current public debate about Iraq, 
declaring that it may be a "hopeful sign. The polls say Americans don't 
want to talk about Iraq - they want to talk about the economy, about 
education. But the press has continued to point out the important 
thing. Everyone knows there's been a dance between the President and 
Congress over Iraq."

  Thomas didn't let the press off the hook, though. "Everybody learned 
the lessons of Vietnam, including the Pentagon. In Vietnam, 
correspondents could go anywhere - just hop on a helicopter and report 
on the war. Now we don't have that access. It's total secrecy. The 
media overlords should be complaining about this. I do not absolve the 
press. We've rolled over and played dead, too," she said.

  Asked to advise young journalists, Thomas pounced. "Remind the 
politicians you interview that you pay them, that they are public 
servants. Remember every question is legitimate. And don't give up. 
There's always a leak. There's always someone who's trying to save the 
country," she said.

  The talk was sponsored by the MIT Communications Forum.

  A version of this  article appeared in the November 6, 2002  issue of 
MIT Tech Talk (Volume 47, Number 11).