2617 Duration: 3.5 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?
2618 Duration: 4.54 seconds
Helen Thomas:
My name is Helen Thomas, and I'm a Hearst Newspapers' columnist.
2619 Duration: 19.95 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
When I'm looking at the time period building up to the war in Iraq, how would you evaluate your fellow -- the whole press corps' performance leading up to the war in Iraq? [Poor.] --Okay -- I'm not going to be including my questions.[Okay.]
2620 Duration: 16.52 seconds
Helen Thomas:
I think that -- White House press corps -- and the Pentagon press -- did a very poor job in the run up to the war -- Didn't ask the right questions -- Didn't ask, in fact, hardly any questions that would challenge the premises for going to war.
2621 Duration: 3.3 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
What do you attribute that to? Why weren't these questions asked?
2622 Duration: 9.38 seconds
Helen Thomas:
I attribute it to 9/11, which put everyone in a patriotic mode -- Being afraid to be called un-American
2623 Duration: 5.01 seconds
Helen Thomas:
And just afraid, really, that you would be rocking the boat.
2624 Duration: 2.4 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
And when you look at the --
2625 Duration: 8.27 seconds
Helen Thomas:
I don't put myself in that category. I ask very, very tough questions -- Became almost persona non-grata because of it.
2626 Duration: 1.07 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
And –
2627 Duration: 3.27 seconds
Helen Thomas:
But I think it's the job of a reporter to do that.
2628 Duration: 3.37 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
So in other words, the job of a reporter to ask the tough -- ?
2629 Duration: 6.17 seconds
Helen Thomas:
Tough questions, and, you know, not just tough, just penetrating the lies.
2631 Duration: 13.05 seconds
Helen Thomas:
Now we find out there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were usable, certainly -- were not discovered -- No ties to al Qaeda terrorist organizations -- And no threat.
2632 Duration: 8.81 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Leading up to the war in Iraq, there was a sense that those "why" questions were not being asked at all.
2633 Duration: 6.14 seconds
Helen Thomas:
No proof was asked on anything. They just blithely accepted everything.
2634 Duration: 32.63 seconds
Helen Thomas:
And I think we really defaulted on our real role, which is -- because we are the only transmission belt from the White House. The White House Press Corps is the only institution in our society that can ask the President a question. And the Presidential news conference is the only forum in our society where a President can be questioned and held accountable. And if they're not questioned, they could rule like dictators -- by edict alone.
2635 Duration: 14.15 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
It seems like the communications policy has been -- when the President does have a press conference, to not allow the tough questions to even be asked -- the scripted nature of it. Can you speak to that a little bit?
2637 Duration: 17.05 seconds
Helen Thomas:
White House can pretty well predict what we're going to ask. We'll go for the headlines of the day if we're certainly interested in news. At the same time, I don't believe that the White House censors, per se. But certainly the President had a list of people he would call on.
2639 Duration: 17.68 seconds
Helen Thomas:
The censorship almost comes from a self-censorship, rather than from on high. We can ask anything we want, and I'm sure they wouldn't – they'd just have to stand and take it. But we didn't ask what should have been asked, obviously -- for proof.
2640 Duration: 11.78 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Is there a sense of a pack mentality -- of a conformity? Can you talk a little bit about the psychological -- you know, the psychology of -- [(crosstalk) -- Well, I think --]
2641 Duration: 20.49 seconds
Helen Thomas:
The whole atmospheric of patriotism -- "Bring out the flag" and so forth -- after 9/11, it was a period of great trauma for the whole country. And certainly reporters are Americans and human beings also. We certainly were infected with the same reticence to challenge.
2642 Duration: 5.71 seconds
Helen Thomas:
So in that sense, there is a pack mentality. I think that --
2643 Duration: 4.37 seconds
Helen Thomas:
We went into a coma, but I think that we're coming out of it now
2644 Duration: 6.94 seconds
Helen Thomas:
-- Finally. But it's a little too late, and too many people are dead -- too many people.
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