“We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.” – Helen Thomas
One evening in 1999, my wife and I picked Helen
Thomas up at the Twin Cities airport. With time to kill until she was to do a
keynote speech at a scholarship event, she asked us to drive her around, show her
the area, and talk about reporting.
It was about the fastest two hours I've ever
spent. She regaled us with stories about
time in the White House Press Corps, her work at home and abroad with the
United Press, and how journalism was changing, some for the better but much for the worse. She
worried about where things might be headed and how as writers we needed to be
diligent in telling the whole story and not caving in to the ever-growing
pressure that many in the profession were feeling from the influence of
the internet.
Born in Kentucky on this date in 1920, Thomas plowed new ground for women in journalism and spoke eloquently that
night about staying the course and being true to the term “Watchdogs for Democracy.” It was just when her new book Front Row at the White House came onto
the market and at evening’s end she gracefully took a copy from her bag and signed
it to us as we drove her back for a redeye flight home.
Author and news reporter for 60 years, she
covered the administrations of 11 U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to
Obama. She was the first female officer
of the National Press Club, and the first female member and president of the White
House Correspondents’ Association. She
wrote thousands of articles, literally beginning in the trenches as a copygirl and ending at the
highest echelon, earning every major newswriting award and 30 honorary
doctorate degrees along the way.
Her starting salary for the United Press in
1943, by the way, was $24 a week. “I
wasn’t in it for the money,” she quipped.
When she handed me that signed book, I was flabbergasted. “I don’t know how to thank you,” I stammered. “That’s so unexpected.” Her response:
“When you’re in the news business, always expect the unexpected.”
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