Helen Thomas: Journalists Need More Courage ("Bush is afraid of my questions")

With 57 years of White House reporting, Helen Thomas is commonly referred to as “The First Lady of the Press.” She talked to Adbusters associate editor Deborah Campbell about the state of journalism today.

Adbusters: You’ve had a front row seat on the White House press gallery since Kennedy, and now you’ve been moved to the back of the room . . .

Helen Thomas: Only for press conferences with Bush. He doesn’t want to call on me.

HT: I’m reluctant to personalize it. No president likes the press, period. But Bush in particular wants to sanitize who he talks to. They give him a list of reporters to call on – which I’ve never seen done before – and he sticks to the script. He’s afraid of my questions. On the one hand it makes me laugh, but it’s also sad. A president of the United States ought to be able to handle any question. If they can’t, then why are they there? My requests are very simple. Usually it’s like “why?” Why did you do it? What’s it all about? If you’re putting people’s lives at risk, you should be able to answer questions like that.

AB: Do you think the US press is tough enough on monitoring the centers of power at this point?

HT: No, I think they fell down on the job. But I sense that they’re getting their sea legs, gradually coming out of their coma in light of the hurricane and Karl Rove and a few other things. So they might get back to being real reporters again. I think they’re beginning to realize they let too many opportunities pass, that it’s okay to get angry and to really challenge, which is their job. Reporters represent the last frontier in terms of questioning public officials. If we don’t do it, it doesn’t happen.

AB: Do you recall a time or a moment in history when journalism was more heroic than it has been in recent years?

HT: Every other time but this time. And it’s because of 9/11. People wanted to be more patriotic and were afraid of rocking the boat. From there, we segued into a war where reporters were worried about jeopardizing the troops. So there was a heavy cloud and reporters had to fall in line for awhile. But they’re coming out of it, thank goodness.

HT: Fear. Lack of courage. You want to keep your job. Maybe some corporate heads are breathing down your neck. You’ve got to feed the family and send the kids to college. There might be financial reasons and others, and maybe some reporters genuinely feel they shouldn’t raise uncomfortable questions at a time when patriotism is demanded. But our job is to find out the truth. That’s our only job.

AB: At the moment it seems there are some cracks in the US foreign policy. Do you speculate as to where any of that is going?

HT: Well, I think that we’ve got to pull the troops out of Iraq. We’ve got to stop killing. This is ridiculous. It’s more than ridiculous, it’s tragic. Wanton killing, killing and being killed – for what? I think the administration wants to hang in there because they actually believe they can win. But I think that’s a long shot, if anything. And what is winning anyway? Winning what? A Shia theocracy? Is that what American soldiers are dying for? Furthermore, we’ve got to find out what terrorism is really about, find out the root causes. I think that it was right to go into Afghanistan and right to go after Bin Laden. But what about the bigger picture? Is it a religious war? Is it American policy that is motivating these people? What is it? Figure that out, and deal with it.

Here is Helens latest "work":

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Friday, February 3, 2006

Rove leads Bush on GOP campaign trail

By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- Karl Rove is whistling in the dark if he thinks his trademark political attacks on Democrats can work again in the mid-term elections this fall.

The American people are finally waking up, and the Democrats have the cards -- if they have the courage to play them.

Americans know that President Bush's strategy for victory in Iraq is costing more lives -- American and Iraqi -- almost every day as he heads into the third anniversary of the invasion of that oil-rich country. It was supposed to be a "cakewalk," remember?

Rove, deputy White House chief of staff and the Republican Party's political guru, seems to forget that Bush has picked up a lot of baggage since the last election. The Hurricane Katrina debacle and the Iraq quagmire come to mind and partially explain his decline in public opinion polls.

Rove will continue operating under a cloud until special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald completes his investigation of the unlawful leak of the identity of former CIA undercover officer Valerie Plame to some Washington journalists.

Nonetheless, Rove headlined a recent pep rally for the nervous Republican Party faithful and made it clear he believes accusations that the Democrats are weak on national security will resonate with voters in November, just as they did in the 2004 presidential race.

Bush boasted after his triumph in that election that he had earned a lot of political capital to spend. Then the roof fell in.

The first year of Bush's second term was marked by spectacular ineptitude, highlighted by failures in handling the hurricane catastrophes. His performance raised doubts that the administration can handle other national crises.

Those doubts deepen against the background of the endless U.S. occupation of Iraq, with its links to the torture of prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi custody, the secret CIA-run prisons and Bush's pathetic insistence that he could simply ignore the law and spy on Americans without a court order.

Bush's party is deeply mired in the Jack Abramoff influence-buying scandal. And Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was forced to resign as House Republican leader because of his own ethics morass.

None of this bodes well for the GOP. That may explain Rove's resort to his favorite tactic of resorting to a national security scare.

"The United States faces a ruthless enemy," Rove said in the campaign's opening salvo, "and we need a commander in chief and a Congress who understand the nature of the threat and the gravity of the moment America finds itself in. President Bush and the Republican Party do. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many Democrats."

At a recent news conference, Bush insisted the November "election is about peace and prosperity." Well, hardly. Where is the peace? And where is the prosperity for thousands of U.S. workers facing layoffs in auto factories?

Senate hearings begin next week into Bush's decision to order eavesdropping inside the United States by the National Security Agency, the government's giant electronic ear.

The White House spin doctors are trying to paint that as the "terrorist surveillance program," more of the administration's strategy of scare the heck out of everyone and you can get away with anything you want to do.

It's interesting to note that the law Bush has ignored -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- allows domestic surveillance only with a court warrant that must be obtained either before the eavesdropping or within 72 hours afterward. The law was written in 1978.

"We're having this discussion in 2006," he said. "It's a different world."

If Bush thought the law needed updating, he should have asked Congress to change it. Bush should be reminded that he twice has sworn to uphold the Constitution and to see that the laws are faithfully executed.

Under Rove's political guidance, Bush will be campaigning for Republican congressional candidates later this year, stressing his domestic and foreign policy record. But he may find some members of the GOP reluctant to jump on his bandwagon.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.