Indiana Institute of Technology has announced that journalist Helen Thomas will speak at the school's commencement on May 12th.
Indiana Tech President Arthur Snyder wrote:
Our ceremony will take place at the Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, May 12th at 11:30 a.m. and, this year, I'm delighted to announce that our guest speaker is former White House Bureau Chief, Helen Thomas.
Helen Thomas, also known as the "First Lady of the Press," is probably best known to political watchers as the longtime White House correspondent for United Press International who, for decades, closed presidential press conferences by saying, "Thank you, Mr. President." [ ... ] Throughout her extraordinary and continued journalism career, Thomas has earned a reputation for her tenacity in posing tough questions, and I am confident that her Commencement remarks will be memorable.
Well, I suppose that's ONE way to describe her.
For some reason, biased old battle-axe is the first thing to pop into my mind. Hmmmmmm
Maybe I'm thinking of a different Helen Thomas.....
No, No, that's the right one.
Posted by: tim zank | April 11, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Funny...
I think of Helen Thomas as one of a dying breed of journalists...one who was more interested in the story than in getting her fifteen minutes of fame and a slot on ______(fill in the name) and Co. on CNN. Someone who asked the tough questions of candidates on both sides of the political spectrum, and then wrote the story without fanfare. Someone who delivered the news with a minimum of spin for more than fifty years.
Yep. That's the right one.
Better Helen Thomas than a Rush Limbaugh, a Sean Hannity, a Katie Couric or a Paula Zahn. At least the story (in this case, the commencement) will be the center of attention.
Posted by: Steve "Tiny" Michaels | April 11, 2007 at 11:07 AM
It's incredible, Steve, that you actually believe what you wrote above. Helen Thomas loves to refer to the fact that FDR was the first President she ever covered.
Well, that dying breed of journalists used to keep their personal and vitriolic opinions about the President to themselves and stick to strictly reporting the news. Whether biased or not, her generation of reports kept their mouths shut.
But in her decrepit old age, Helen Thomas has said things about our President that invalidate her alleged contributions to journalism. She's a hack reporter. Old and experienced, but still a hack.
"This is the worst president ever," she told the Torrance, CA, Daily Breeze in January. "He is the worst president in all of American history." Today's journalists say things like this. Real journalists report the news.
Posted by: Jason Blosser | April 11, 2007 at 01:14 PM
So what you're telling me, Jason, is that it's your belief that she's left her distinguished career behind and is now as bad as the rest of the 'journalists' we have now?
Setting columnists aside (which Thomas now is, incidentally,)who among today's crop of reporters, then, would you point to with some pride as unbiased? And of those, who among them are unbiased enough to NOT have a private opinion, or express that opinion in a private conversation?
From NNDB, "In a November 2002 talk at MIT, Thomas revealed: "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter. Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'
Two months later, the answer to that question revealed itself in an off-the-record comment to a reporter from the Torrance, California Daily Breeze following the Society of Professional Journalists annual awards banquet. "This is the worst President ever. He is the worst President in all of American history." The Breeze ran the quote, and the rest is history.
And this from the Hearst Journalism Awards Program...
"Despite the criticism, Thomas said she has no plans to stop asking tough questions of U.S. presidents.
“If you’re afraid to ask the questions, you shouldn’t be in the business,” she said. “The people are best served with a straight news story. Let them, decide.”"
You could, as I stated before, do much worse than that for a commencement speaker. I welcome her insight at the commencement. Wonder what she'd have to say about the Woodlan flap?
Posted by: Steve "Tiny" Michaels | April 11, 2007 at 04:42 PM
If she is a "columnist" now she should lose that press conference seat, no other columnists are seated at those.
Posted by: John Wonderly | April 11, 2007 at 08:13 PM