Хелен Томас: Американ журналисінің өмірі мен қызметі

American journalist (1920–2013)
people with a similar name

Helen Amelia Thomas (August 4, 1920 – July 20, 2013) leading to accusations of antisemitism. She then served as an opinion columnist for the Falls Church News Press until February 2012.

Born in Winchester, Kentucky, Thomas was the seventh of the nine children of George and Mary (Rowady) Thomas, immigrants from Tripoli, Lebanon (then part of the Ottoman Empire). Thomas said her father's surname, "Antonious", was anglicized to "Thomas" when he entered the U. S. at Ellis Island, Thomas was raised mainly in Detroit, Michigan, where her family moved when she was four years old, and where her father ran a grocery store. She also said that in Detroit in the 1920s, she came home crying from school, "They wanted to make you feel you weren't 'American' We were called 'garlic eaters' ". She was a member of the Antiochian Orthodox Church. She enrolled at Wayne University in Detroit, receiving a bachelor's degree in English in 1942, as the school did not yet offer a degree in journalism.

Thomas moved to Washington, D. C. Her first job in journalism was as a copygirl for the now defunct Washington Daily News. After eight months at the paper, she joined with her colleagues in a strike action and was fired. Her first assignments focused her on societal issues, women's news and celebrity profiles. In 1955, she was assigned to cover the United States Department of Justice. She later was assigned to cover other agencies, including the United States Department of Health, as well as Capitol Hill. Thomas served as president of the Women's National Press Club from 1959 through 1960.

In November 1960, Thomas began covering then President elect John F. Kennedy, taking the initiative to switch from reporting the "women's angle" to reporting the news of the day. She became a White House correspondent for UPI in January 1961. Thomas became known as the "Sitting Buddha," and the "First Lady of the Press." It was during Kennedy's administration that she began ending presidential press conferences with a signature "Thank you, Mr. President," reviving a tradition started by UPI's Albert Merriman Smith during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. In a 2008 article, The Christian Science Monitor wrote: "Thomas, a fixture in American politics, is outspoken, blunt, demanding, forceful and unrelenting. Not only does she command respect by the highest powers in the US, her reputation is known worldwide." When Cuban leader Fidel Castro was asked in the early 2000s what was the difference between democracy in Cuba and democracy in the United States, Castro reportedly replied, "I don't have to answer questions from Helen Thomas." Thomas considered Castro's reply to be "the height of flattery." In 1962, Thomas convinced President Kennedy not to attend the annual dinners held for the White House correspondents and photographers if they disallowed women from attending. President Kennedy moved for the dinners to be combined into one event, with women allowed to attend. In 1970, UPI named Thomas their chief White House correspondent, making her the first woman to serve in the position. She was named the chief of UPI's White House bureau in 1974. During the Watergate scandal, Martha Mitchell, wife of United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, frequently called Thomas to discuss how the Nixon administration was using Mitchell as a scapegoat. The column provided an insider's view of various presidential administrations. In 1975, the Washington Press Corps club, known as the Gridiron Club, admitted Thomas, making her the first woman to become a member. From 1975 through 1976, she served as the first female president of the White House Correspondents' Association. All other seats are assigned to media outlets.

On May 17, 2000, the day after it was announced that the UPI had been acquired by News World Communications Inc., an international media conglomerate founded and controlled by Unification Church leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon which owns The Washington Times and other news media, Thomas resigned from the UPI after 57 years with the organization. She later described the change in ownership as "a bridge too far." Less than two months later, she joined Hearst Newspapers as an opinion columnist, writing on national affairs and the White House. After leaving her job as a reporter at the UPI, Thomas became more likely to air her personal, negative views. In a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she quipped, "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter. Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'"

On February 9, 2009, Thomas was present in the front row for newly elected President Obama's first news conference. President Obama called on her with the statement, "Helen. I'm excited, this is my inaugural moment," seemingly a reference to her long term presence in the White House Press Corps. Thomas asked if he knew of any Middle Eastern country that possessed nuclear weapons, implicitly asking him to confirm or deny Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal, despite Israel's long held stance of "nuclear ambiguity". Obama replied that he did not want to "speculate" on the matter. On July 1, 2009, Thomas commented on the Obama administration's handling of the press, "we have had some control but not this control. I mean I'm amazed, I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and you have controlled ". On August 4, 2009, Thomas celebrated her 89th birthday. President Obama, whose birthday is on the same day, presented Thomas with birthday cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to her before that day's press conference.

Rabbi David Nesenoff of RabbiLive. com, on the White House grounds with his son and a teenage friend for a May 27, 2010, American Jewish Heritage Celebration Day, interviewed Thomas for an unscheduled short conversation as she was leaving the White House via the North Lawn driveway. When solicited for "any comments on Israel," she replied, "tell them to get the hell out of Palestine" and: "Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. Not German [sic], it's not Poland." Then he asked: "Where they should go? What do they do?". To which she responded: "They go home." He follows up with: "Where's the home?". She replies back with "Poland, " but in the middle of her answer, he adds to his question: "So the Jews ", she adds: " Germany." He finishes off: " should go back to Poland and Germany?" To which she finally responds: "And America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries? See?" An about two minutes long full cut of the May 27, 2010, interview was posted on Nesenoff's YouTube channel on June 7. In addition, Thomas said in the CNN interview: "Why do they [Jews] have to go anywhere? They aren't being persecuted! They don't have the right to take other people's land." When asked if she regretted the comment, she said: "We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel, you can't open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but you say one thing about Israel and you're off limits." On June 4, Thomas posted the following response on her website: "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

Thomas's agency, Nine Speakers, Inc., immediately dropped her as a client because of her remarks. In a statement, they said "Ms. Thomas has had an esteemed career as a journalist, and she has been a trailblazer for women, helping others in her profession, and beyond. However, in light of recent events, Nine Speakers is no longer able to represent Ms. Thomas, nor can we condone her comments on the Middle East." Craig Crawford, who co authored Listen up, Mr. President, said "I will no longer be working with Helen on our book projects." Her scheduled delivery of a commencement speech at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, was canceled by the school. The White House Correspondents' Association, over which she once presided, issued a statement calling her remarks "indefensible". In January 2011, the Society of Professional Journalists voted to retire the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement. On June 7, Thomas abruptly tendered her resignation from Hearst Newspapers. Her comments also garnered rebukes from numerous others, including White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, former special counsel to and White House spokesman for President Bill Clinton, Lanny Davis, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson. Thomas did have defenders who felt she was being attacked too harshly, including former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Fox News contributor Ellen Ratner, former UPI managing editor Michael Freedman and The Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. Nader said there was a "double standard" where one "off hand 'ill conceived remark'" (quoting NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard) ended Helen Thomas' career while "ultra right wing radio and cable ranters" engaged in "bigotry, stereotypes and falsehoods directed wholesale against Muslims, including a blatant antisemitism against Arabs" keep getting rewarded with "enhanced careers and fat lecture fees." In an October 2010 radio interview with Scott Spears of WMRN, Thomas said she realized soon after making the comments that she would be fired, stating, "I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive." She added that she issued an apology because people were upset, but that ultimately, she still "had the same feelings about Israel's aggression and brutality."

On December 2, 2010, shortly before a speech for the eighth annual "Images and Perceptions of Arab Americans" conference in Dearborn, Michigan, Thomas told reporters that she still stood by the comments she had made to Nesenoff. Referring to her resignation, she said "I paid a price, but it's worth it to speak the truth." During the speech, Thomas said: "Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by Zionists. No question, in my opinion." Thomas defended her comments on December 7, telling Scott Spears of Marion, Ohio radio station WMRN, "I just think that people should be enlightened as to who is in charge of the opinion in this country." The next day, the Anti Defamation League called for journalism schools and organizations to rescind any honors given to Thomas. The organization said that Thomas had "clearly, unequivocally revealed herself as a vulgar antisemite" in the speech. Wayne State University in Detroit discontinued the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in Media Award, which it had been granting for more than ten years, citing what it called her antisemitic remarks. Thomas objected, saying that "the leaders of Wayne State University have made a mockery of the First Amendment and disgraced their understanding of its inherent freedom of speech and the press." Asked by the Detroit Free Press how she would respond to people who say she is antisemitic, Thomas responded: 'I'd say I'm a Semite. What are you talking about?'" Thomas was interviewed for the April 2011 issue of Playboy magazine, and made further contentious statements. When asked "Do you actually think there’s a secret Jewish conspiracy at work in this country [the US]? ", Thomas replied, "Not a secret. It’s very open." Owner Editor Nicholas Benton repeatedly defended the decision to hire her despite her comments. He said in 2011 that he was "outraged" when the Society of Professional Journalists voted on retiring a scholarship award named for Thomas. Benton defended Thomas from antisemitism by saying that Thomas "is herself a Semite" and was "expressing a political point of view [in the interview with Nesenoff above], and not a bigoted racial sentiment."

Thomas described herself as a liberal. At age 51, Thomas married a colleague, Douglas Cornell, who was just retiring as the White House reporter for the Associated Press. Thomas was cremated and her ashes were buried in Detroit, following a traditional Antiochian Orthodox funeral service.

Many female journalists memorialized Thomas on Twitter, including Judy Woodruff, who called her a "trailblazer", and Lynn Sweet, who said she was a "glass ceiling breaking journalist". Andrea Mitchell tweeted that Thomas "made it possible for all of us who followed." Dana Perino, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush, remembered that on her first day as press secretary, Thomas approached her to give her words of encouragement. In 2006, Thomas encouraged Arab Americans to become journalists: "For her own part, Helen Thomas says that, while she’s glad to see Americans of Arab descent winning journalism prizes, she would prefer simply to see more bylines with Arab names. So she has one instruction for newcomers: 'Get into the game!' she says."

Thomas received numerous awards and more than 30 honorary degrees. In 1976, Thomas was named one of the World Almanac's 25 Most Influential Women in America. In 1985, she received the Columbia University Journalism Award. and in 1984 was honored with the National Press Club Fourth Estate Award. In 2000, Thomas was presented with the Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award. In 1986 she received the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit from the University of Kansas. Thomas received an Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media from the Freedom Forum in 1991. The White House Correspondents' Association honored her in 1998 by establishing the "Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award". In 2000, her alma mater, Wayne State University, established an award for journalists in her honor, the "Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity award". In December 2010, the award was discontinued by Wayne State which cited her renewed remarks similar to those in May 2010. Speaking for Wayne State, Matthew Seeger, its interim dean said, that the award is given to promote the importance of diversity in the media and that this award "is no longer helping us achieve our goals." In 2007, Thomas received a Foremother Award from the National Center for Health Research. In October 2010, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) honored Thomas with a lifetime achievement award. In April 2012, Thomas received an award from the Palestine Liberation Organization's General Mission to the United States. The award was presented by PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi to "recognize Thomas's long career in the field of journalism, during which she defended the Palestinian position every step of the way." The Society of Professional Journalists had an annual award for top journalists named after Thomas but decided to retire the award in 2011. The SPJ executive board initially said it would keep the award after Thomas's May 2010 comments calling for Jews to leave Israel to the Palestinians and return to "Europe, Russia and America," but the board decided to retire the award after Thomas's remarks later in 2010 about the alleged control of the United States by Zionists. Several pro Thomas individuals in SPJ leadership roles campaigned to have the award reinstated, but the retirement decision was upheld by SPJ's regional leadership that year and by an 85 77 margin at the national SPJ convention, also that year, marking the permanent end of any ties between Thomas and SPJ.