“ I didn’t ball out of the human race as a reporter. I allowed myself to think, to care to believe - I just didn’t let it into my copy. ”
Helen Thomas, in her speech tonight to a packed audotorium at McTrib.
I’m feeling very lucky that, on just another weekday evening, I can see this journalistic giant and fascinating public figure speak. Dressed in all black with a flashy band of sequins around her waist, Thomas was so short I couldn’t even see her face over the podium from where I sat. But she commanded the attention of her audience.
Once, for class, I had to write an advance obituary of an elderly public figure and I chose to write about Helen Thomas. The assignment was morbid but illuminating, and since then her name has been embedded in my head. “Helen Thomas”: a strong byline and an even stronger character, whose ascent in the male-dominated world of political reporting spanned over 6 decades and included coverage of 9 administrations. Someone who challenged foreign policy under Bush again and again and again. I can’t believe the woman is 89 - born even before the Great Depression - and still doing speaking engagements.
I especially love this quote from her memoir, revealing her built-in skepticism for power: “The presidency may awe me,” she said, “but not the president.”
