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A Giant of Journalism Comes Up Short
On Israel: "The road map has nothing to do with this fence being built on Palestinian land, 400 miles."
On Bush and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: "Obviously he has no power with the man."
  President Clinton presented White House correspondent Helen Thomas with a birthday cake in 1997. Her book discusses changes in the press corps. (By Ruth Fremson -- Associated Press) |
On Iran: "This is an opportunity to talk directly to Iran. . . . I'm sure the three other allies and so forth would be very happy if we talked directly to Iran."
Presidential press secretaries patronize her by repeatedly addressing her as "Helen" so her identity is clear in the transcript. "We will temporarily suspend the Q&A portion of today's briefing to bring you this advocacy minute," former press secretary Ari Fleischer said during a tussle with Thomas. Tony Snow dubbed her "Secretary of State Helen Thomas."
Still, her colleagues in the White House press corps admire her tenacity. They concluded that she was an institution and should keep her front-row seat even though she no longer worked for a wire service. They offered to defend her to the White House when Bush refused to call on her at news conferences.
Come to think of it, that's starting to sound like the "chummy" press corps in the day of that "most inspired leader," JFK.
Milbank covered the White House for The Washington Post during President Bush's first term and now writes Washington Sketch.
