WORDS.

"In a town where the powerful are rarely held accountable for their actions, this time, there was no mercy for someone who made a mistake and apologized for it — and that’s a shame. Her brand of fearless journalism, animated by moxie and an almost pathological need for answers, has inspired other intrepid reporters to follow in her stead. This, as we learned the hard way with the disastrous war in Iraq, is essential.

After 9/11 and in the run-up to the war, a national security fog enveloped Washington, and an obsequious press corps, with a few exceptions, behaved like stenographers to power and gave Bush a pass. Many in the media, afraid to raise objections for fear of appearing unpatriotic, dutifully enlisted in the administration’s war. Those who did ask tough and dissenting questions, including such journalists as Thomas and publications such as the Nation, came under fire from people across the political spectrum.

That dark period in our nation’s journalistic history was a lesson that, in a national security crisis, accountability journalism is the linchpin of a strong, functioning democracy.

Thomas unapologetically urged reporters to steadfastly seek the truth and “let the chips fall where they may.”..."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Helen Thomas’s legacy