esrosedotblog

Helen Thomas, the infamous White House reporter, died yesterday at 92.

Helen Thomas Who Broke Down Barriers at the White House.

There hardly seems a time when Helen Thomas was not reporting the news from the White House.

An indefatigable prober, Ms. Thomas forged a reputation for the sharp question and even sharper aside.

She was an objective reporter through and through but she had a killer instinct as a bullshit detector. A good skill to have in all of DC.

You would think that with so much bullshit it would be easy to point out but it took courage and resourcefulness to get by the wiliest of politicians.

No one remembers much about Lyndon Baines Johnson the uber-bullshitter of all recent time, but he was a master and Helen Thomas could take him down. In public. In a press conference held to sooth the public's mind.

And that goes for every other President as well.

She used to piss me off some. Lack of respect. Abandoning context. But she was right more often than not and what Helen Thomas saw, we eventually all saw clearly.

Other journalist/reporters followed her lead. She was a mentor at many levels.

Towards the end, she got a little funny here and there. We all do. But she was a vehement detractor from the Iraq wars and she was right.

She was rude and she was memorable.

“How would you define the difference between a probing question and a rude one?” she was asked.

“I don’t think there are any rude questions,” she said.

Here she goes on Jill Behar who tries to steer the conversation to her also heavily criticism of Israel.

She would not be pushed around.

*esrosedotblog heroes and heroines qualify by being 90 or older and have my admiration. I don't know which is more difficult, actually. When I am someone's hero, I will let you know.

I do know that a weird combination of humility and curmudgeonship is a good start.

Labels: heroes