Helen Thomas: Celebrated For Her Sex, Not For Her Accomplishments

You know, she really wasn’t that bad. Sure, she said something pretty stupid about Israel on video, but taken in the context of her life — taken in the context of the narrative — she was a woman of enormous accomplishment.

That, at least, is the argument being made on Salon by Anna Clark:

Had Thomas retired a month ago, the news would have cued a celebration of her contributions to journalism. And let’s be frank: These contributions are truly astonishing. In 1943, a year after she graduated from Wayne State University, she was hired by United Press International. So began a long trajectory of barrier breaking in the places where media and politics meet, places that are hardly welcoming to professional women. Thomas became the first female officer of the National Press Club — which had been exclusively male for nearly a century — and the first female officer of the White House Correspondents Association. She served as the WHCA’s first female president in the mid-1970s. Thomas also helped persuade President Kennedy…

You get the picture: Helen Thomas is not being celebrated for the stories she broke, or her wit, or her insight: she’s being celebrated for her sex. Or gender, to use the current term. To which the only proper response is: so what?

It’s not as if Thomas was the first woman to accomplish anything in journalism: just ask Nelly Bly, who became a turn-of-the-century icon thanks to her bravery and derring-do. Inspired by Jules Verne, she broke the around-the-world speed record (72 days), and went undercover in a lunatic asylum for a memorable expose.

It’s not as if Thomas was the first reporter on the beach at Normandy, like the great Martha Gellhorn, who was also one of the first journalists to enter Dachau and report from a dozen other dangerous battlefields in World War II and still found time for a tempestuous romance with and marriage to Ernest Hemingway that swept from Key West to the Spanish Civil War to the Russo-Finnish War, through the end of the Big One. After which Gellhorn went on to cover wars all over the globe, including the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 and the Vietnam War.

Want another female reporter of real accomplishment, instead of a laundry list of “firsts?” Try the great Edna Buchanan, the legendary crime reporter in Miami, now turned mystery novelist. In the 1970s and ’80s, Buchanan was the gold standard in crime reporting, tougher than the cops she covered and unflinching in her portrayal of the evil things human beings sometimes do to one another.

By comparison, can anyone remember a single memorable article by Helen Thomas, or a single felicitous turn of phrase by Helen Thomas (other than her career-ending opinion that the Jews should go back to Germany and Poland)? For much of her time in the trenches, she was a wire-service reporter for cying out loud.

The very fact that we have to discuss Thomas’s career in terms of artificial “firsts” indicates how little there really is to talk about. She was more a character than a consequential reporter, who entertained her colleagues with her unpredictable irascibility and her willingness, indeed eagerness, to go toe-to-toe with the bad guys — conservative Republicans. Besides, everyone knew how she felt about Jews:

I don’t like how Thomas voiced her opinions in this video; it was sloppy and hurtful. But her views aren’t exactly news; the gist of them are evident from her past columns. Meanwhile, Thomas joins a long line of opinion-makers who have uttered controversial, even despicable comments. Rush Limbaugh, anyone? Glenn Beck? Howard Stern? Sean Hannity? None of these voices seem to fear a forced retirement. What’s different about Thomas? For one, she’s old. For two, she’s a woman. And while I won’t pretend this is a simple scenario where ageism and sexism are wholly to blame, it’s hard to imagine that they aren’t factors at all.

Right: ageism and sexism. What else could possibly explain it? After all, she was a liberal woman — what’s not to like?

I hope Helen Thomas’ accomplishments aren’t diminished in light of her faults. I also hope her accomplishments don’t keep us from holding her accountable when she errs. Perhaps the greatest takeaway from this debacle might be the realization that, yes, people with significant failings can accomplish great things.

Accomplishments such as… well, let’s let Ms. Clark finish the list from above:

… President Kennedy to sit out the press correspondent’s dinner because women were not allowed to come. As well, Thomas plowed her way into the Gridiron Club, the oldest and most prestigious Washington journalism club, becoming its first female member and, later, its first female president.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what passes for accomplishment in America today: longevity and proximity to the seat of power, now fittingly symbolized by an empty chair.