A camera operator takes footage of Policy Watch host Doug Besharov holding White House Press Corps journalist Helen Thomas’ latest book following an interview.
It’s been 67 years since Helen Thomas worked as a copy aide for the Washington Daily News, her first experience at a professional publication.
But when she spoke yesterday at Stamp Student Union, Thomas, who is still an active member of the White House Press Corps and writes regular columns about national affairs at the age of 89, was as fiery and spirited as a recent college graduate just embarking on a journalism career. Thomas described her decades of experience as a White House correspondent and as a female pioneer in a male-dominated industry to an audience of about 40 that included roughly 15 students.
“I thought, ‘This is the life’ — I could cut classes and be nosy,” Thomas said of her first taste of journalism when she was still in high school. “The best part, though, was that I knew it was a lifeboat of great, profound meaning for democracy to keep people informed and find out what’s going on.”
Women in the press were not rare but were highly suppressed in her time, Thomas said, as parents would automatically ask a young girl if she wanted to be a nurse or a teacher.
But Thomas made it clear she did not want to be either, and she was willing to take even the most untraditional route to get from “the women’s pages” — as she called the soft-news gossip often assigned to women — to the hard stuff.
“I sort of assigned myself [as a White House correspondent]; I was very sneaky,” Thomas said. “There was so much interest in the Kennedy family, they’d send me to see what they were up to, and after that I just kept going. I became a fixture. I was never assigned there — I just stayed there.”
As Thomas described it, her access to both the public and private lives of the past 10 presidents, their cabinets and their families has allowed her to do just that: keep the people informed.
Doug Besharov, a public policy professor and the host of the interview, said that after reading her books, he felt he had learned so much more about what goes into a presidency.
“I read and learned almost more than I wanted to hear about the difficulties of being a president,” Besharov said.
Thomas said she has learned just how much secrecy there is in government and how little the public really knows throughout her time covering the presidency.
She rattled off her first encounters with, impressions of and political feelings about all 10 presidents and their wives with ease.
From the elegance and culture Jackie Kennedy brought to the White House to the “gigantic ego” of Lyndon B. Johnson, to the disappointment she felt because of the two wars started during George W. Bush’s tenure, Thomas had a personal anecdote and some historical perspective for each.
Thomas said she is “quite worried about where we are as a country” but has some advice for President Barack Obama.
“Have courage to do the right thing and you’ll never be wrong,” Thomas said.
Students in the audience called listening to her a great privilege.
Sophomore journalism major Michaelle Bond said she didn’t think twice before coming to see Thomas.
“When I saw Helen Thomas was coming, I immediately wanted to go,” Bond said. “Considering how many presidents she’s covered, the things she’s seen and the places she’s been, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
farrell at umdbk dot com
