The First Amendment and the White House

Helen Thomas, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent for United Press International. As White House bureau chief, she has covered every president since John F. Kennedy and is often referred to as "the First Lady of the Press." Thomas was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, the first woman member and president of the White House Correspondents Association and the first woman member of the Gridiron Club. In 1998 she received the International Women's Media Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and was honored by President and Mrs. Clinton as the first recipient of the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the author of four books: Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public; Thanks for the Memories Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House; Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times; and Dateline: Whitehouse. The 2007 First Amendment Day Lecture.