Milestones

By Alexandra Silver Monday, June 21, 2010

    • RETIRED

    After more than a half-century of asking questions for a living, it was her own response to an interviewer that precipitated the end of Helen Thomas' career. The journalist--known as the dean of the White House press corps--retired June 7 following the circulation of her filmed remarks that Israeli Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Poland, Germany, the U.S. "and everywhere else." Thomas, 89, started working for United Press International in 1943 and has covered the presidency since John F. Kennedy. Despite her jump from reporter to Hearst News Service columnist in 2000, Thomas kept her coveted front-row White House briefing-room seat. She wasn't there, though, when White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called her comments "offensive and reprehensible." The White House Correspondents' Association, of which Thomas was the first female president, called her words "indefensible." In the end, a statement of regret wasn't enough to allow her to hold on to that front-row seat.