VOA标准英语2010年-Legendary Journalist Celebrates 50 Yea

Related Links
The White House
Award-winning journalist Helen Thomas has been covering Washington politics for more than 60 years. In 1961, she became the first woman to cover the White House during President John F. Kennedy's administration and has reported on every U.S. President since. 

The early years

Helen Thomas was born in Winchester, Kentucky in 1920; the seventh of nine children born to Lebanese immigrant parents. Thomas says her parents eagerly adapted to the culture of their new American homeland and went about setting high goals for all nine of their children:

Associated Press
Award-winning journalist Helen Thomas has been covering the White House for 50 years

"They couldn't read or write but they were extremely intelligent," she says, adding that the one thing they really wanted for all their children was a college education.

In keeping with her parents' dreams, Thomas ended up at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where she studied journalism¹. After graduating in 1942, she headed to Washington where she worked as a copy girl at the now defunct² Washington Daily News. She joined the United Press International (UPI) news agency in 1943 and stayed for 57 years.

A passionate³ journalist

Thomas says journalism has always been her calling. "I love history, and I knew this would be the place where I could always keep learning," she says. Thomas also believes journalism offers reporters opportunities to help their country, "because we seek the truth and try to inform the American people."

The Kennedy and Nixon years

Associated Press
Helen Thomas was the first news woman to cover the White House under President Kennedy's administration

In 1961, during President John F. Kennedy's administration, Thomas became the first female journalist to cover the White House. She says it was a wonderful experience:

"There was great hope with the Kennedy administration. Young people were taking over and they had great goals," she says. She believes Kennedy was aware that time was short. "I think he had a sense of destiny, [a] rendezvous⁴ with death, believe it or not."

Associated Press
Helen Thomas was the only female print journalist to travel with President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972

During the past 50 years, Thomas has covered 10 U.S. presidents and traveled with many of them on official trips overseas. One of her most memorable⁵ travel assignments came when she accompanied President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972.

"Going to China on the breakthrough trip after a 20-year hiatus where we had no relations with China, everything was a story." According to Thomas, every reporter in Washington wanted to be on that trip. There was a story in everything. "What the Chinese ate, how they looked, what they wore."  Even trivial things were  important, Thomas says, "because we felt we were showing the world a country that had been locked down for 20 years."

The Reagan years

Recalling another memorable White House trip, President Ronald Reagan's 1988 visit to the former Soviet⁶ Union, Thomas recounts an observation the late president made upon their return to Washington.

"I said 'Mr. President, don't you think it would have been better if you'd gone to Moscow ten years ago, twenty years ago? You might have found out the Russians were not the evil empire; that they were human; they laughed and cried.' And he said, 'Nope. They've changed!'"

Asking the tough questions

Associated Press
"I feel that we are representing the American people who don't get a chance to ask the president a question, so it's a privilege and we should not think lightly of it," says Helen Thomas

Despite the feeling of camaraderie⁷ she enjoyed with some of the presidents she covered, Thomas developed a reputation for asking them tough, no-nonsense questions.

During a White House press conference in 2006, Thomas asked President George W. Bush the following question about the War in Iraq:

"I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis; wounded Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war?"

President Bush's response: "I think your premise⁸, in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist, is that - I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect."

The exchange between Thomas and former President Bush made news.

A dominating presence in the White House Briefing room

Although she no longer travels on presidential trips, Thomas routinely attends daily White House press briefings where she is often the first to be called upon from her front-row seat.

Associated Press
"She was tough and she was thorough, but she was fair," Dee Dee Myers, press secretary under President Clinton, talking about Thomas' coverage⁹ of the Clinton administration

Many White House press secretaries have been on the receiving end of some of her tough questioning. Dee Dee Myers was press secretary to former president Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994. She remembers Thomas well. "She saw her job as making sure that you were telling the facts like they were, that you were credible¹⁰, that you were reliable, that you were thorough; she always wanted you to say more than you wanted to and she was relentless," says Myers.

Myers says one of the qualities she most admires about Thomas is how "day after day, week after week, administration after administration, she's always there trying to get to the facts."

Thomas acknowledges that she's a force to be reckoned with."I've been shunned¹¹ a lot. I think a lot of presidents have been, not afraid, but they don't want to tangle¹² with me in terms of my questions, so they're not very happy to call on me. But I feel that we are representing the American people who don't get a chance to ask the president a question so it's a privilege and we should not think lightly of it."

Being shunned is something Thomas is all too familiar with. When she first started covering politics in Washington more than 60 years ago, women reporters were barred from joining major press organizations:

"We newswomen fought to get into the National Press Club which is a professional club, but everything has been a struggle." Since that time, says Thomas, "all the clubs in this country that barred women have had to open up."

Listen Up Mr. President!

At almost 90 years old, Helen Thomas shows no signs of slowing down. She is currently a columnist¹³ with Hearst Newspapers, writing about national affairs and the White House. She is also the bestselling author of five books.

Associated Press
"Mr. President, whatever you do in office, have the courage to make a difference," Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford, from their recently-published book, "Listen Up, Mr. President".

Her latest is, Listen Up Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President To Know And Do. She describes the book, which is co-authored by writer and political commentator¹⁴ Craig Crawford, as the sum total of their experience covering politicians.

It's also offers a set of guidelines to help all new presidents. "What we think they did wrong, and what they can do right," she says.

Regarding President Obama's first year in office, Thomas believes he is "trying very hard," but says "he needs to have more courage."

"There's no such thing as an instant president," she says. "They're all on a learning curve. You only hope they'll learn and remember the lessons from the past so they don't repeat them."

Thomas is regarded by many as an icon¹⁵ of the White House press corps¹⁶. Bill Plante, a White House Correspondent at CBS News for 25 years, also thinks of her as a pioneer, both for breaking barriers for women in the workplace and as a veteran journalist.

"She became one of the first, if not the first woman, to actually cover the news at the White House," says Plante. It was a major breakthrough in the middle of her life. "But the big breakthrough is that she has persisted and been able to do it with the respect of her colleagues to this advanced age," says Plante.

1 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

2 defunct   

adj.死亡的；已倒闭的

参考例句：

• The scheme for building an airport seems to be completely defunct now.建造新机场的计划看来整个完蛋了。
• This schema object is defunct.No modifications are allowed until it is made active again.此架构对象不起作用。在重新激活之前，不能进行任何改动。

3 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

4 rendezvous   

n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇

参考例句：

• She made the rendezvous with only minutes to spare.她还差几分钟时才来赴约。
• I have a rendezvous with Peter at a restaurant on the harbour.我和彼得在海港的一个餐馆有个约会。

5 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

6 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

7 camaraderie   

n.同志之爱，友情

参考例句：

• The camaraderie among fellow employees made the tedious work just bearable.同事之间的情谊使枯燥乏味的工作变得还能忍受。
• Some bosses are formal and have occasional interactions,while others prefer continual camaraderie.有些老板很刻板，偶尔才和下属互动一下；有些则喜欢和下属打成一片。

8 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

11 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

13 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

14 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

15 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

16 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。