Legendary journalist and reporter Helen Thomas died yesterday at the age of 92

Honestly, I can’t say I know all that much about her. I knew her as the old lady in the front row of the White House press briefing room facing down Press Secretaries and Presidents alike, from John F Kennedy to Barack Obama, not accepting sanitized and rehearsed talking points as substitutes for real answers.

I know she was admired for breaking all sorts of glass ceilings in the male-dominated news industry, not content with being just another airhead news-bimbo (like she ever could, and of which we still have in plentiful supply).

I also know that she was expelled from the fold after making remarks that some found offensive, criticizing Israel at a function at the White House. These were perfectly legitimate criticisms of the State of Israel, views that many hold, myself included; not anti-Semitic in nature. Anti-Zionist perhaps, but not anti-Semitic, and there’s a world of difference.

It is sad that she was forced to end a stellar career on such a down-note. It is my personal judgment that the world is a better place for Helen Thomas having lived. A much better place.