Helen Thomas tries to sell her book

   Helen Thomas, the White House press corps matriarch who spoke Monday at the Truman Museum in Independence, defended her most recent book, Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public, published last year. The book charges the Washington press establishment of growing timid during the run-up to the Iraq War.
    “I don’t think they liked it,” Thomas said, after being asked what her colleagues thought of the book.
    “The Washington Post panned it, a few others panned it, but a lot of people say they liked it. Anyway, I didn’t write it to be liked. I wrote it to get my outrage off my chest and to make a point.”
   Thomas also seemed disappointed that The Star reporter interviewing her had not read the book.
  “Well, if would be nice if you’d buy it,” she said. “I’m in the sales department now.”
    Later she regaled a Truman Museum audience with anecdotes from her career with the White House press corps, which began in 1961.
   Covering Lyndon Johnson, she said, was strenuous. The walking press conferences that Johnson conducted on the south lawn on the White House, she said, were known among correspondents as “Bataan death marches.” Reporters and White House staffers alike were subject to Johnson’s whims, she added.
   “I went to Texas twice without a toothbrush; he was that impromptu,” she said.
   She also told of once interviewing Lillian Carter, mother of Jimmy Carter.
   “She said `Every time I look at my children, I wish I had remained a virgin,’ ” Thomas said.
   Thomas also seemed a little territorial in regards to the emerging political blogosphere.
  “Everybody with a laptop thinks they’re a journalist now,” she said.

Posted by Brian Burnes

Comments

[Screeching Monkey]

"“Everybody with a laptop thinks they’re a journalist now,” "

Maybe if the real journalists hadn't let their standards fall so low and failed to do their job, the lines wouldn't be so blurry.

Message to Helen:
I very much regret not hearing and meeting you. I could have gotten tickets but am not a DAR member, nor probably would I have been welcomed in that crowd, and so I'll purchase your book instead. Keep on truckin, lady.

[Mizzou82]

Kudos to Helen, who alone in the White House press corps and at a time when many were still fawning over George W. Bush had the guts to identify him for history as he is---The Worst President Ever.

She takes herself too seriously.

[annony]

Unfortunatley Ms Thomas has forgotten that the press isn't supposed to share their opinion. If they woulk like to express their opinion they are free to join the editorial page. Just because she has covered many presidents doesn't make her a "super" journalist.

[JAMES]

I hope she's not on the cover.

3:06 - are you kidding? I don't care if you like her or not - anyone who has covered the white house for that many years is a super-journalist.

[Arminius]

"The walking press conferences that Johnson conducted on the south lawn on the White House, she said, were known among correspondents as 'Bataan death marches.'"

So members of the press were a bunch of whiners back then as well. I followed the the road of the march from Bataan to San Fernando in the Philippines in 2002 by car. That trip took several hours. Imagine walking it with no food and little water in the tropics.

Press conferences were the Bataan Death March. Bush and Cheney are destroying democracy. Anyone else see a pattern of exaggeration from our Syrian friend Helen Thomas?

[Arminius]

Mizzou82:

"The Worst President Ever."

I think Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are still duking it out for that title.

[KCDem]

1. Gee arminius, you are so right. Wasn't it terrible when we were at peace, inflation was low, we had a budget surplus, and gas was 99 cents a gallon?
2. Helen Thomas writes a book slamming the media and the blog title is "Helen Thomas TRIES to sell her book." Strike a nerve, maybe?

kcdem, you left out mutliple years of government surpluses.

kcdem, you also left out all the $$$ not made by the bushie/cheney cronies.

Brian Burnes, that is one skanky title. You should be ashamed.

[Political Moderate]

"Anyone else see a pattern of exaggeration from our Syrian friend Helen Thomas?"

To answer with another question:

Does anyone see the bigotry of Arminius' question?
Ms. Thomas' ethnic background is being used to incite. It is totally irrelevant to her work as a journalist.

[Phentermine 37.5]

I am waiting for some more comments to take the discussions forward.

[Phentermine]

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