Lynn Espinoza is a broadcast news veteran with more than a decade of media, presentation and executive coaching experience. She has developed personal coaching sessions for Fortune 100 C-level executives, corporate communicators of all kinds, doctors, lawyers and leaders in non-profit.
Farewell, Helen Thomas
Posted on June 7, 2010. Filed under: Latest News Leave a Comment
It’s not supposed to happen this way. Helen Thomas should be celebrating her retirement from 60 years of journalism by attending amazing tributes and parties – applauded by every big name in the business. She should be receiving love notes from the hundreds (or, thousands) of aspiring journalists who watched her and learned from her. Every woman in the news business owes her.
Instead, she retires under pressure after a thoughtless comment goes viral on You Tube. It’s just stunning. She has been a tough-nosed reporter for so long, and she (of all people) knows how a stupid utterance can unravel a brilliant career. It just seems inconceivable that the brilliant career-under-collapse is hers!
About a year ago, I had a chance encounter with Helen Thomas at the Edward R. Murrow Symposium at Washington State University. At a hotel breakfast, the only seat available was at my table, and Helen took it. As someone who had a long run as a television reporter, I seized the chance to talk with her about her storied career. It was a meal I’ll never forget. We discussed hot political figures, but not hot political issues. Had she spoken her views of Jews in Palestine, I wouldn’t have left the table so star struck.
So this is how she goes out. She has no choice but to retire, and she deserves to hear the negative reaction to the comment that is bouncing around the world. It’s just sad that she leaves the White House press corps – where she has spent decades unearthing the truth - with a slap, rather than a pat, on the back, and without acknowledgment of all that she’s accomplished.
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