Adele Ferguson - Helen Thomas got the ax; why did she rate press seat?

SO HELEN Thomas finally got the ax.

It’s about time. Hearst should have done it years ago.

You never heard of Helen Thomas? Sure you have. Now 89, she was for years the senior reporter at White House press conferences, which entitled her to ask the first question and close it off with a “thank you, Mr. President.”

She resigned from UPI when the news service changed hands in 2000 and went to work for Hearst as a columnist, but she never gave up her seat in the front row at the White House from which she asked questions intended to embarrass President George W. Bush or put him on the spot.

Born...