By: E&P Staff Asked about new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, longtime president-watcher Helen Thomas tells The New York Times Magazine this coming Sunday, "I don't think he is going to give us more information. I think he is a little smoother and slicker and he is trying to master how to give you a karate chop and still smile."
Thomas tells Deborah Solomon she does not begrudge Snow's former organization, Fox News, getting special favors, commenting that "if Fox has the access, good. If they can produce the news, that's what we want. We want the people to be informed."
Still, she considers this "the most secretive administration I have ever covered." Yet she admits she has never requested a sit-down interview with the president. "I didn't think it was possible," she explains, "and I don't like to be ignored or turned down."
Asked about questions that may be too probing, she answers, "I don't think there are any rude questions." She adds that she doesn't think reporters should say "thank you" when a president answers a question because that's "his job."
Despite her frequent tough exchanges with former press chief, Scott McClellan, particularly over Iraq, she says, "we were still on speaking terms when he left...We were friends, in a superficial way."
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