Here's an op-ed piece by former Unipresser Ron Cohen that appeared in the May 21, 2000, Baltimore Sun. (Cohen, national editor of Gannett News Service, worked for UPI for 25 years through 1986, including stints as Washington news editor, bureau chief and managing editor -- positions in which he ostensibly was Helen Thomas's boss.):
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The last time United Press International turned a profit was 1961. Imagine.
Still alive after almost four decades in the soup -- soup frequently so deep
the monthly red ink number read a cool $2 million.
Yet, even as staff was slashed by more than 1,500 and once-fat client rolls
plummeted toward single digits and an Internet-only existence, it seemed the
patient somehow might -- comatose and on life support -- outlive the last
Downholder. Where's Dr. Kevorkian when you need him?
But this week, far too late for UPI to cling to even its last shred of dignity, the wooden stake finally found its target.
On Monday, it was announced the bones of the once-great news organization
had been sold, for the fifth time in 18 years, by a consortium of Saudi Arabian royalty. The dubious winner was the Washington Times, founded by
controversial Rev Sun Myung Moon. No terms were disclosed, but the Saudi
princes doubtless beamed with relief as they raced for the exits.
Billionaires don't get that rich by being profligate for very long.
And next day Helen Thomas, UPI's most famous -- and only -- remaining asset, left with a dignified, classy resignation speech the company she had served
and adored for 57 years. It had been snatched by owners she could not, would
not, work for. Her leave-taking was far more gracious than the statement by
UPI CEO Arnaud de Borchegrave (who -- wink wink, stunning coincidence -- used
to be head honcho at the Washington Times).
Helen, he told the Washington Post, left big shoes. But "Everyone is dispensable."
Helen dispensable? Heresy.
She is, after all, the first lady of American journalism, whose piercing questions and bulldog tenacity had bedeviled every president since John F. Kennedy. Perhaps to fellow reporters, home was an apartment in the District or a split-level in the 'burbs. To Helen, home was the UPI cubicle in the White House press room. She was there most mornings before dawn, stayinguntil it was clear even she could wrench no more scraps of information that night.
Ah, the memories.
** Helen Thomas, often clad in red "because presidents tend to notice you
when you're colorful," who as the senior wire service correspondent ending every White House news conference with, "Thank you, Mr. President." The famously long-winded Bill Clinton remarked when learning she was leaving that without Helen's valedictory some presidential news conferences might never end.
** Helen Thomas, short-legged, shouting questions as she chased long-legged former Michigan football star Jerry Ford down the tarmac toward Air Force One -- keeping up, somehow, and simultaneously taking notes. Ford once called her "a fine blend of journalism and acupuncture." Helen, no admirer of Richard Nixon, caught by a photographer at the moment of his resignation, hand cupping her chin, a frightened look that almost said, "What hath we wrought?"
** Helen, then 51, uncharacteristically speechless when Pat Nixon scooped her
by announcing -- at the retirement party of AP White House rival Doug Cornell -- that Mr. Cornell was the love of Helen's life and they soon would be married.
** Helen, never hesitating to criticize a president but always profoundly
respectful -- and protective -- of the awesome office.
** Helen, first woman president of the National Press Club, of the Gridiron
Club, of the White House Correspondents Association; Helen in cameo roles in
several Hollywood films about fictional presidents.
** Helen Thomas, recipient of late-night phone calls from Martha Mitchell, wife of Nixon's attorney general, bizarre one-sided conversations that landed on front pages across the country and turned out to be the early warning clarions of the Watergate cover-up that cost Nixon his presidency. Helen Thomas and United Press, inextricably intertwined for 57 years.
No more.
Perhaps her old pal, ABC's Sam Donaldson put it best:
"The White House will probably survive. But UPI cannot. Helen is and was
UPI."