Thomas ends White House career
WASHINGTON - Helen Thomas, the opinionated White House correspondent who used her seat in the front row of history to grill 10 presidents and often exasperate them, lost her storied perch Monday in a flap over calling on Israelis to get "out of Palestine."
Thomas, 89, who made her name as a bulldog for United Press International and was a pioneer for women in journalism, abruptly retired as a columnist for Hearst News Service. The announcement, in a terse statement by Hearst, came after videotaped remarks she made to an independent filmmaker spread virally through the Internet.
She apologized, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denounced her comments as "offensive and reprehensible." Her press corps colleagues with the White House Correspondents Association issued a rare admonishment calling them "indefensible."
Thomas joined UPI in 1943 and began covering the White House for the wire service in 1960. Fiercely competitive, she became the first female White House bureau chief for the wire service in 1974. She also was the first female officer at the National Press Club, where women had once been barred as members.
She retained her place on the front row of the White House briefing room after joining Hearst in 2000 and remained persistent to the point of badgering.
A daughter of Lebanese immigrants, she did little to hide her pro-Arab views. During George W. Bush's presidency, her questions to both the president and his press secretaries were almost exclusively about the war in Iraq.
She sharply questioned President Obama two weeks ago.
"Mr. President, when are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are you continuing to
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