What makes a great communicator? Helen Thomas has a few thoughts. The veteran journalist, 89, has covered the administrations of 10 American presidents over a nearly 60-year period and is the longest serving White House press correspondent in our history. Her reporting career started at the tail end of World War II, in 1945. She shares insights and advice for future presidents in her latest book, Listen Up, Mr. President (written with Craig Crawford). “American presidents define our image as a nation for the rest of the world,” she says.
The Fiscal Times caught up with her this week for a candid conversation.
Read our interview with the author:
The Fiscal Times (TFT): Compared to the other presidents you’ve covered—and you go back to a young and charismatic John F. Kennedy in the early ‘60s—how do you think President Obama handles himself during press conferences?
Helen Thomas: I think he is very eloquent and is learning a lot. He is on a learning curve. But he has not had enough courage of his convictions, if he has those convictions. I may assume too much.
TFT: Can you elaborate?
HT: Obama caves too much, compromises too much, does not uphold principals. No one can peg him as a conservative, liberal or moderate.
TFT: Have you ever questioned him one-on-one, outside the briefing room?
HT: I haven’t tried.
TFT: Why not?
HT: I’m waiting for his understanding that he has no place to go and do the right thing.
TFT: You’ve been sympathetic to him and that’s clear in your new book. Has he read the book?
HT: I want to give him a copy, but I haven’t yet. I supported him as president and I think he has great possibility and potential.
TFT: What would you like to see more of in presidential news conferences, generally speaking?
HT: Truth. People can handle the truth. They shouldn’t be given anything less. Dancing around the issues is not the way to go.
TFT: President Obama has had only a handful of major news conferences so far. Some have criticized him for not having more. Your thoughts?
HT: He has not had enough news conferences. The last major one was in July 2009, and the one after that [in February of this year], was shut down by the snow and very few people were alerted to it. The president should have a news conference every two weeks.
TFT: When you go into a news conference, what’s your goal?
HT: The best thing is just to ask tough questions and get a president on the record to tell the truth. It’s a great privilege to question a president, but you shouldn’t blow it. You should really try to find out the “why’s.” We very seldom get “why’s,” as in why are we going to war or why we are paying billions of dollars every week to kill and to die. Secrecy is endemic in the White House. Information that mostly belongs in the public domain becomes the secrecy of an administration. Does anyone know why we are in Afghanistan? Or why we went into Iraq under lies?
TFT: So what makes a great communicator, in your mind?
HT: Integrity and knowing that you cannot have a democracy without an informed people.
TFT: You’ve had a long and distinguished career. Yet you must have had obstacles along the way.
HT: Women were denied many roles in our society simply because they were women. My favorite people were the suffragettes who marched in the early part of the 20th century. Everything has been a struggle. It took us years to get into the National Press Club, even though we were on the same beats as the men. We couldn’t belong to the White House Correspondents Association. We paid a $2 fee a year but couldn’t go to the annual dinner to honor the president until we put up a fight. You have to fight for rights.
TFT: Is gender a non-issue today in journalism?
HT: Certainly not as much as when I started out. I do think we’ve come a long way, having two women on the nightly network news, which was unheard of, as well as a woman Speaker of the House and a woman Secretary of State. I think gender has been a real block for women going back many, many years. But now I think women are more accepted in every way in broadcast. We aren’t there yet. We still have a way to go.
TFT: What must be done to get there?
HT: Total equality in the workplace for all women in any profession. Women should still continue to fight for true equality.
TFT: Listen Up, Mr. President is your fifth book. Will you write another?
HT: Well, I’d like to. I’d like to sell this one too. You don’t just write a book; you have to sell it.
TFT: Is retirement in the cards for you?
HT: No. I’m going to die with my boots on. But I don’t understand why this question constantly comes up. Can’t people stand having older people work? Why should I do anything less?
TFT: For young reporters just starting out, what’s your best advice?
HT: Go for it. It’s the greatest profession in the world. Every day is an education. Any profession that lets you keep learning is tremendous. The more we know about what’s happening in the world, the more we can do something about it.
TFT: Will you join Facebook or Twitter?
HT: Well, somebody put my name down. I am a little wary of everyone getting into the act, simply because I think just throwing something out without any professional journalism or ethics can ruin lives and reputations. It can hurt a lot of people.
TFT: Who’s been your role models?
HT: My parents [George and Mary Thomas, who were Lebanese immigrants]. They made sure we were educated and let us be who we wanted to be.
TFT: How would you describe yourself, in a nutshell?
HT: I think I’m an open book. I try to shoot straight. I think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That’s the way I ask questions. I believe we should question authority and make those in power accountable.
TFT: On a final note: How do you spend your free time?
HT: Eat, drink and be merry.
Read our excerpt from Listen Up, Mr. President by Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford (Scribner), in which Ms. Thomas shares keen advice for future presidents:
The first rule of the dreaded press conference, Mr. President, is to answer the question.
Even “no comment” can be an answer. It’s certainly better than dodging tough questions with diversionary non-answers when the people have a right to know. And lying is even worse than dodging.
How your staff deals with the press is up to you, Mr. President. Your own attitudes toward the news media will trickle down. If you see us as the enemy to be thwarted at every turn, things will deteriorate. If you value the media’s role as a conduit to the public for explaining your decisions and relaying your forthright defenses against criticism, things will go better.
Presidents usually come into office vowing to conduct the most open administration in history. In the White House press room, we tend to snicker at such promises.
The openness or secrecy of an administration depends on the president. It is your job, Mr. President, to set the tone and lay down the rules for how your White House staff views the public’s right to the truth.
There are many avenues available to a president to get his message out—the news media, addresses to the nation, and going on the stump. You will regret using those methods to avoid tough questions, distort the truth, or try to spin away your problems. It might take a while, but the public will one day catch on.
Truth sometimes takes time to get out, but it eventually surfaces. To paraphrase Mark Twain, a lie can circle the globe many times while the truth is still putting on its pants.
A president’s relationship with the news media is the first and most obvious stop in evaluating a new administration’s attitude toward the public’s right to know the truth. Signs of a secretive, potentially self-destructive presidency include avoidance of presidential press conferences, recriminations against critical reporting, and excessive efforts to turn the public against the news media.
Excerpted from Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do, by Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford. Copyright © 20009 by Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford. Excerpted with permission by Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
