Thank you, Mr. President

Legendary United Press International White House correspondent Helen Thomas has enjoyed a ringside seat to instant history in her 55-year journalism career.

At 78, the spry Thomas, who donned a sparkling red barrette in her hair as she delivered the keynote address during the 154th Commencement exercises, has directed questions to eight presidents beginning with John F. Kennedy.

“We do have the privilege of watching presidents closely. Well, not THAT closely,” she told the graduating class, May 15. “Our mission as reporters is to keep people informed.

Our mission is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, for we cannot have a democracy without an informed people,” she said.

The first woman officer of the National Press Club, the first woman officer of the White House Correspondents Association and author of Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times, Thomas chose journalism because every day is an education despite the pain occasionally associated with the profession.

“No president has ever liked the press dating back to George Washington — I wasn’t covering him,” she joked. Thomas then shared with the graduates some of the remarks presidents have made concerning the press.

“Once when we walked into the Cabinet Room, President Nixon looked up and said, ‘It’s only coincidental that we’re talking about pollution when the press walks in.’

Jimmy Carter always seemed to be saying, ‘Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ and when the Sandinistas, the Marxists, fired on a press helicopter at the Honduran border, President Reagan said, ‘There is some good in everyone.’”

Thomas also encouraged the graduates to hold onto their values, their sense of humor and their sense of humanity as they plunge headlong into the 21st century.

“We are saying goodbye to a century marked by the best of times, the worst of times,” she said. “You will be the leaders of the 21st century, and with that crown, you will be bearing great responsibilities for the country and all mankind.”

Considered the dean of the White House press corps, Thomas continues to call them as she sees them. Her motivation: “Pure outrage. That’s my adrenaline,” she said during an informal press conference prior to the Commencement ceremony.

Thomas also explained her thoughts on such topics as the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and television violence.“There is no question that President Clinton will not wind up on Mount Rushmore,” she said, adding, “at the same time, I don’t think [the scandal] totally wipes out his record. I think he has done a lot of good.”

On film and television violence, Thomas asked, “Is violence the only story that Hollywood or television can produce? I’ve never turned on a drama on television where somebody isn’t shooting someone.”

A liberal arts graduate of Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, Mich., Thomas majored in English because the school did not offer journalism.

Although she thinks journalists can succeed with either a communications background or a liberal arts background, she noted that “liberal arts is great because it really gives you insights into so many things.”

As for Wittenberg, Thomas said she thought the invitation to speak was wonderful and something she didn’t want to miss.

“I’ve heard of this school throughout the years,” she said, adding that “I’ve always heard of some little gem out there where the students really were getting a very good education and more hands-on direction.

It’s smaller but the kind of thing that becomes the ideal in terms of these monstrous classes where some professor shows up every once in a while because he is too busy publishing or working on his tenth degree.”

-KG