Brief introduction of helen thomas

Helen thomas is the oldest member of the White House press corps. Since 196 1 started working as a reporter for the Associated Press in the White House, she has asked nine American presidents and is known for her sharp questions. Helen, 86, has written four books, each of which has attracted much attention. The new book "Watchdogs of Washington Journalists with Declining Democracy and How They Disappointed the Public" stirred up a thousand waves.

The elder sister of American journalism has kept many records in the history of American journalism. She is the first female official of the National Press Association, the first female member and the first female president of the White House Journalists Association, and the first female member of the American Celebrity Club. As the only female journalist, 1972 visited China with President Nixon.

From 65438 to 0920, Helen was born into a Lebanese immigrant family in Kentucky, ranking seventh among nine children. Although both parents are illiterate, little Helen has a special feeling for words. /kloc-When she was 0/2 years old, she announced that she wanted to be a reporter when she grew up.

After graduating from Wayne State University at the age of 22, Helen stayed in the political center of Washington under the pretext of visiting her cousin. Her first job was as a handyman in the Washington Daily News. Later, Helen finally became a reporter through hard work, but before she could celebrate, she caught up with the layoffs of the Washington Daily News-Helen was fired.

1943, Helen joined the Associated Press. 196 1 year, after Kennedy was elected president, at the age of 40, she became the first female reporter in the White House press corps. After 10, she became the chief reporter and later became the head of the press corps.

Helen: The woman who makes the president tremble.

Helen thomas asked nine American presidents from Kennedy to George W. Bush. For more than 40 years, Americans can always see her standing up from the front row and staring at the president's eyes to ask questions from the live broadcast of the presidential press conference.

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The president will tremble when women approach.

In fact, when George W. Bush came to power in 2000, helen thomas had finished his career as a White House reporter and became a columnist of Hearst Newspaper Group. In a column in 2002, she mercilessly described George W. Bush as "the president of the emperor". She never denied that "George W. Bush was the worst president in American history" and called him a "liar".

Although Helen still attended the president's press conference, she was excluded from the list of questions. It was not until March 2, 20061day, local time in the United States, that this veteran reporter, who is famous for torturing the president, finally had the opportunity to ask the current president questions for the first time in three years.

"My question is, why do you want to go to war so much? From the moment you stepped into the White House ... what was the real reason? You said it wasn't because of oil, Israel or anything else. What was it? " Helen thomas asked bluntly.

"... I don't want to go to war. Helen, it is wrong to think that I want to go to war, "Bush responded. Helen interrupted the president: "Everything-"

The president quickly interjected: "Sorry, sorry, no president wants war ... (long explanation) This is why I am in Iraq-please let me finish-"

"They didn't do anything to you and our country." Helen retorted.

"I'm sorry, please let me finish, let me finish. They did it! The Taliban (Afghanistan) provides a safe haven for Al Qaeda, where Al Qaeda is trained—"

"But I'm talking about Iraq-"Helen rudely interrupted the president again.

This is the way this lady challenged all previous American presidents in the White House press room. "There is no doubt that for more than 40 years, presidents will tremble whenever this woman approaches. She has a knife-like tongue and the wisdom of a sword. " Washington post said of "the first lady of the press".

In Helen's view, it is her right as a reporter to ask the president questions. In her autobiography, The White House Frontier, she wrote: "Only in a democratic system are journalists allowed to question their leaders. Because we don't have a British parliamentary system, we urge government officials to be responsible to the people and explain their actions and policies. This responsibility falls on the shoulders of journalists. "

In her new book, watchdog of democracy? She wrote, "Over the years, I have had the opportunity to question the President of the United States, the most powerful public servant in this country. I admit that I am in awe of this position, but I am not in awe of the people who occupy this position, because "our duty is not to admire how respected a leader is, but to put them in the spotlight from time to time to see if they have negative public trust."

No one understands the horror of having to face reporters to answer all kinds of questions in the world every day.

Thomas is a Syrian immigrant. After graduating from college at the age of 22, he ranked seventh among nine children and decided not to go anywhere except Washington, the political center of the country. She stayed in Washington on the pretext of visiting her cousin.

1960, Kennedy was elected president. Helen, 40, was transferred to the White House reporter station in united press international and started her lifelong career-White House Reporting.

Previously, female reporters in the White House were not allowed to attend the White House press conference. Once, Helen protested to Kennedy: "If we can't attend, you shouldn't." Kennedy agreed. Since then, female journalists have invaded the territory of male journalists. President Kennedy said that Helen would be a "good girl" if she threw away her pen and interview book.

For many years, Helen was always the first or second White House reporter to ask the President questions. 1975, she was elected as the head of the White House press corps.

If there is no "chubby" Price, there may not be helen thomas, who is nicknamed "the torturer of the president" by friends.

1896, the reporter of the Washington Star was assigned an impossible task by his editor: to dig up news in the White House. The editor knew that the then President of Cleveland hated journalists very much and wanted to crowd out the "fat people".

Of course, "Fat Man" can't interview the President, but he always stays outside the White House and asks everyone who walks out of the White House and talks to the President, so as to get a lot of exclusive inside information. By 1900, a large number of reporters were sent to wander around the White House or the surrounding streets, and President McKinley appointed an assistant to release news briefings to these reporters once a day. When theodore roosevelt became president, on a rainy day, he saw a group of reporters huddled under a tree outside the White House like a drowned rat, so he asked them to take shelter from the rain.

Since then, journalists have never been invited out. Theodore roosevelt designated a lounge next to his study as a reporter's room, and soon Congress allocated funds to build a reporter's office in the White House.

It was in this office that helen thomas began her career as a White House reporter. "I have been stationed in the White House for longer than any reporter." Helen said.

"Only when he faced the news media did the president have to explain to the people that there was no other public place to attack the president on the topic of the day."

Every time she stands up for the first time to ask a question, she always sees the body language of different presidents: "Carter's cowardice", "Reagan's bow" and Bush's "Oh no! Don't Helen! "

Standing on the podium in the White House press room, Kennedy may ask his aides to "predict 90% of reporters' questions in advance"; Nixon browsed the abstracts of various documents, "a shoo-in"; Carter may have all the facts and data at hand; Reagan may be "as nervous as attending a thesis defense", and even if he is on vacation at Camp David, he will not forget to "sharpen his knife".

Every time I attend a prime-time live news conference, the head of the White House press corps wears two watches and accurately controls the time to 30 minutes. When the time came, she stood up and said, "Thank you, Mr. President."

On one occasion, Reagan was bombarded with sharp questions at a press conference. After 25 minutes of evasive response, he gave Helen a sweaty look, and his eyes seemed to ask, "Can it be over?" Helen looked at her watch and shook her head. "In just five minutes, the president was actually under my control." Helen said.

The White House press room is sometimes like a courtroom. For example, Nixon in Watergate; Carter in the Iranian hostage crisis; Reagan in Iran-contra: Sex Scandal with Clinton. It's like a witness being bombarded by 60 unfriendly prosecutors at the same time.

Marin Fitzwater, White House press secretary, once said, "No one understands the horror of having to face reporters to answer all kinds of questions in the world every day."

Power will try to manage news, but they don't always succeed.

"I don't believe there will be a government that doesn't want to manage, control or plan news. The White House always wants to show the best of the president. It's natural. Any government hopes that journalists will undoubtedly regard the news it publishes as gospel. "

However, "the government can publicize its position, and the reporter's duty is to find out the truth." In the new book, Helen writes.

The White House sometimes threatens journalists by canceling certain preferential rights, such as the right to travel with the president on the presidential plane. Sometimes the White House will complain to the reporter's boss or boss. However, a good boss or superior usually listens politely and then checks the facts. If the reporter didn't make a mistake, he would take the reporter's side.

President lyndon johnson often asks his press spokesman to call the newspaper to complain about stories he doesn't like, because "at least these bastards can know what I think of them". Helen can't remember how many times she heard the president complain: "You all have the First Amendment to the Constitution, as if it were a special weapon against the president."

Sometimes, the White House only tells reporters some facts, or deliberately leaks some good news, or simply forbids employees to disclose some information to the media.

Of course, the White House can also decide when to hold or not to hold a press conference. Johnson usually only announces good news at prime-time press conferences and "buries" bad news.

Every president Helen has reported has tried to "manage the news": Kennedy deliberately created "good news"; Johnson is cold to reporters who write sharp reports; The Nixon administration even eavesdropped on the phone calls of those "thorny" journalists; As for Reagan, a famous gesture is to cover your ears with your hands and pretend that you can't hear the reporter's questions; During the Gulf War, George H.W. Bush asked all reports about the war to be filtered by the Pentagon.

"Power will try to manage news, but they don't always succeed." Helen wrote in her new book. Because there will always be people who "leak the news". In fact, every president she reported was involved in the scandal to some extent.

Helen believes that "Watergate incident may be the best proof that journalists' anti-news management is effective." "Washington post's two journalists constantly exposed reports, which eventually led to Nixon's stepping down.

Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe.

In Helen's view, among all the presidents mentioned above, the Bush administration is undoubtedly the strictest in news management. The biggest difference between this president and the other eight presidents she has reported is that "news management has become a thorough government propaganda".

She criticized Bush's spokesman as a "parrot-like robot". "Even if you know that it is nonsense, you dare not deviate." He always follows the script, and no matter what questions the reporter asks, he "always turns around on the same page."

The 86-year-old reporter, based on her more than 60 years of work experience, asked loudly in the book: "Have American journalists forgotten to seek the truth fearlessly and without likes and dislikes?" Finally, she quoted Lincoln's famous saying: "Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe."

Helen threw countless sharp questions at the presidents, "almost all of them were forgiven by the presidents."

"Almost every day, I ask my assistant,' What is Helen writing?' 1984, when helen thomas won the fourth power award of the National Press Club, Reagan said in his congratulatory message, "You are not only an excellent and respected professional, but also a part of the President of the United States."

1995, on the occasion of the 75th birthday of the "First Lady of the Press", the ruling President Clinton conducted an exclusive interview with her for 15 minutes. The president also held up Helen's tape recorder, pointed it at her, and jokingly conducted a counter-interview with her: "Miss Thomas, you have heard so many evasions and ambiguities from the president over the years ... how did you get through it?"

In May 2000, Helen resigned from united press international, ending her 40-year career as a White House reporter.

Helen was suddenly disappointed: the days when she and other White House reporters "ganged up" on the people standing on the podium are gone forever. These reporters in the White House press room today are no longer their former reporters.