- posted on 09/02/2012 09:21:32This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 10:58 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The dean of the White House Press Corps, 89 year old Helen Thomas has resigned amid pressure over comments outside the White House gates. The words came after the last East Room Press Conference with President Obama.
The White House was drawn into the Helen Thomas Controversy during a briefing on the BP oil spill Monday. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about the issue.
The statements by Thomas that sparked the controversy.
Helen Thomas has retired from White House reporting and from being a Hearst columnist. She has covered 10 presidents in her over 40 years of White House journalism. Helen made her name as a ground breaking journalist for United Press International. She became a columnist about a decade ago when UPI changed owners.
April Ryan, American Urban Radio, tells POLITICO that she doesn’t support Thomas’ comments but recognizes her historic legacy:
Historically, Helen helped with opening the door for many of the reporters at the White House. She was one of the forces back then who got President Kennedy to sit out the Correspondents Dinner because women were not able to come. Kennedy did go to the dinner once women were allowed. Once that happened the dinner and other parts of the white male dominated press corp were eventually opened up to women and other minority reporters.