Helen Thomas Quits UPI
Helen Thomas, United Press International's White House correspondent for nearly 40 years, resigned Tuesday as the embattled news agency's ownership changed hands again.
"I do not intend to stay," Thomas said in a statement. "United Press International is a great news agency. It has made a remarkable mark in the annals of American journalism and has left a superb legacy for future journalists. I wish the new owners all the best, great stories, and happy landings."
The new owner is News World Communications, the parent company of The Washington Times, which owns news outlets around the world and was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church.
President Clinton, at a White House announcement concerning Medicare and prescription drugs for veterans, saluted the retiring journalist.
"Presidents come and go, but Helen's been here for 40 years now, covering eight presidents and doubtless showing the ropes to countless young reporters and, I might add, more than a few press secretaries," he said.
"Whatever she decides to do, I'll feel a little better about my country if I know she'll still be spending some time around here at the White House. After all, without her saying, 'Thank you, Mr. President,' at least some of us might never have ended our news conferences."
UPI Chief Executive Officer Arnaud de Borchgrave initially said Thomas, 79, would remain with the company. "She told me 48 hours ago that if I stayed, she was staying," he said Monday.
De Borchgrave could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. UPI reported on its wire that Thomas resigned after 57 years of service - more than half of UPI's 93 years.
CBS News White House Correspondent Peter Maer points out that the word "retirement" is not in Thomas' statement. "Helen has told me many times that she will never retire," Maer said.
Thomas has been a fixture at the White House since the Kennedy administration. Considered the dean of the White House press corps, she is known for her terse, tough questioning of presidents and press secretaries alike.
"Speaking for myself, this room will not be the same without Helen sitting in the UPI chair," said White House press secretary Joe Lockhart. "I know she's been there for longer than I've been alive and knows more than I'll ever know about this business, about this building, about this town."
CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller agrees.
"She was without a doubt an icon in the White House press corps," he told CBSNews.com. "She has covered every president since John F. Kennedy and for many of us who came after her, we learned a great deal from watching her. I know I did."
Knoller remembers watching Thomas cover Gerald Ford in 1976, getting a few comments, and then running back to her mobile phone in the motorcade to file her story.
"She was indefatigable," he added. "Se was never reticent about asking a tough question. Some of her questions sometimes struck me as off the mark, but they never failed to get a good answer, and that's what our job is."
 Reuters |
| Helen Thomas was applauded Tuesday by fellow White House correspondents, including CBS News' John Roberts, right. |
Roberts said Thomas autographed a copy of her book, Front Row At The White House, when he first began covering the executive mansion.
"She said to me, 'Welcome to the White House. You will be witnessing history every day and making some yourself.' And I believe that Helen Thomas made a history here for journalism that is every bit as relevant as the history that was made in the Oval Office," Roberts said.
Roberts was just one of the dozens of new White House correspondents Thomas greeted upon arrival on the beat, and often making sure her colleagues followed the rules and traditions of the presidential palace. In the 1970s, she reminded her male colleagues that they were expected to wear a tie and jacket while covering the president, and all complied—all except her UPI Audio colleague Pye Chamberlain, who persisted in wearing a black turtleneck. He was her only fashion hold-out.
Thomas portrayed herself in the film The American President, and a few weeks ago, made a cameo appearance President Clinton's video spoof of his lame duck days in the White House.
In that video, Thomas was the lone reporter in the abandoned White House briefing room, snoozing on the front row as Clinton made a statement. When Clinton called for questions, Thomas snapped awake and quipped: "Are you still here?"
Both Knoller and Maer commented that Thomas was always the first reporter in the White House press room in the morning and the last one out at night. "I mean, I come in here to the White House every morning at 5:30 for CBS News," said Maer, "and unless Helen is out of town on a speaking engagement or something like that, she is always here before me. The guards at the desk often chuckle, 'Well, Helen beat you in.'"
The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Thomas was born in Lexington, Ky., in 1920. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Wayne University, now called Wayne State University, in 1942 and relocated to Wasington.
She was hired by United Press in 1943 as a writer for the local radio wire, earning $24 a week. In 1956, Thomas was promoted to covering the Justice Department.
In 1960, Thomas was sent to cover John F. Kennedy's post-election family vacation in Palm Beach, Fla., and remained on the White House beat afterward to cover first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. She was named UPI's chief White House correspondent in 1970.
Maer has known Thomas since 1976 when he came onto the White House beat for Mutual Broadcasting System.
"I saw immediately what a tenacious, dedicated and competitive reporter she is— not was, is," said Maer. "I used to delight in the old days, before we had computers, in watching Helen pick up the phone and dictate an instant lead to UPI editors right off the top of her head quite often."
UPI's sale was the latest in a series of changes of ownership of the wire service.
The company was sold to News World Communications Inc. by Worldwide News Inc., a consortium of Saudi Arabian investors that had bought it in 1992 for about $4 million.
Under the deal, News World Communications gets all the major assets of UPI including its name and trademark, de Borchgrave said. He not disclose the terms.
The new owners said they would develop UPI's new focus on providing news to Internet sites and such services as video streaming. They also plans to boost UPI's operation with new technologies and distribution practices.
"UPI will maintain its editorial independence and build on its reputation for honest, fair-minded reporting that has made it an essential and respected news agency for generations," said Larry Moffitt, special assistant to the president of News World Communications.
The company also will explore opportunities for customized news, covering topics such as national security, science and technology, economics and business.
UPI was sold in 1982 by the Scripps family. Before Monday's sale, it went through two bankruptcy reorganizations and four owners, the latest Worldwide News Inc.
De Borchgrave served as editor in chief of The Washington Times from 1985 to 1991. Before that, he was a senior editor at Newsweek for 25 years.
When he took over as head of UPI in late 1998, de Borchgrave pledged to bring more of the company's business onto the Internet.
"I've wanted to take UPI out of the traditional, conventional news agency arena and create our own arena specializing in high-tech, over-the-horizon development, with links to all the key research centers in America," de Borchgrave said.
UPI got out of the broadcast news business last August, selling its contracts to provide news to more than 400 radio and television stations to The Associated Press.
©2000 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report