Helen Thomas: First Lady of the Press

Helen Thomas, a white House correspondent who has covered every president since John F. Kennedy shared her views aboutwar in Iraq with students at George Mason University via a video conference arranged by C-SPAN

She said that Media has failed to have the courage to ask the questions and ask for press conferences.“Journalists need to step on the line and force president to obey the law he is not above the law. President should be accountable at least a month,” said Thomas.

Helen who has served as White House correspondent for United Press International for 57 years strongly opposes the war in Iraq. She believes that Bush has ulterior motive of getting oil from Iraq and Saddam Hussein is in no way involved in 9/11 attacks. She said, “We are in the wrong spot, stop the fight and not continue, buy the oil.”

Helen is commonly referred as the “The First Lady of the Press.” She has traveled around with presidents and has covered every economic summit.

She believes that there is no reason for U.S to go to war with Iraq, “U.N charter gives two reasons for a country to go to war, if you were attacked or if you have a treaty with another country where you promised aid.

Thomas criticized Bush administration’s foreign policy, “If you ask 10 people why we went to war, you would get 10 different answers, that’s not a way to go to war,” said Thomas. “We attacked a country that did nothing to us; we have killed tens of thousands of people, they are innocent.”
 
Thomas made an astounding statement, “George W. Bush gets nervous when you ask him a question, he is an artful dodger, never answers the question.”

When asked what is the best way to get answer to questions in professional manner. She said keep repeating the question, “people you ask questions from are best in avoiding answering them, they have a right not to answer the question, or say no comments,” said Thomas.

 Giving an advice to upcoming journalist she said, be polite and ask tough questions. “We don’t have a right to force anyone to speak, but it becomes very clear if they side step a question that they do not know the answer of they cannot answer,” said Thomas.

She said, American nation needs to wake up and question their president; “Democracy can be spread without the barrel of a gun. We need to stop arming the heavens,” said Thomas.

When asked by a student who would she nominate for president she said she would vote for anyone who would get us out of Iraq immediately.