Regarded as the dean of the Washington, D.C., press corps, reporter Helen Thomas (born 1920) served as White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI) from 1974 to 2000.

To those who regularly watch presidential press conferences, Helen Thomas was a familiar figure. Usually dressed in red (a tradition dating back to the administration of Ronald Reagan) and always seated in the front row, she was invariably the first or second reporter the president calls upon. It is an honor she earned by virtue of her long and distinguished career in Washington, and it was one she relished. Besides, it afforded her the perfect opportunity to do what she does best--bluntly challenge the president (and other public officials) to tell the plain, unvarnished truth. "We (reporters) are not there to curry presidential favor, nor can we respond to efforts at presidential intimidation," she asserted in her memoir, Dateline: White...