Dissing the Gridiron Club, just because Obama is skipping it this year

[DFW]

On the thread about Obama skipping the traditional March dinner this year, I saw quite a
few posts trashing the Gridiron and the print press as a whole. While the print press have
become largely a bunch of whores beholden to their corporate masters, this is by no means
universal, and some of the their members are highly respected journalists. My father was
certainly one of them, as is his surviving colleague (and our close friend), Helen Thomas.
Both served as Gridiron President. To trash the Gridiron membership as a whole is like H-bombing
Southern California and Connecticut because Nixon and Bush used to hang around there.

My Dad, like Helen, was an investigative journalist, and got hell from both sides (though
mostly Republicans) when he uncovered and wrote about stuff uncomfortable to politicians.
He joined Gridiron in the mid seventies, and was a member in good standing to the day he
died. To trash Gridiron in a blanket manner is to trash him, Helen, and those few
contemporaries of theirs that still hold to the principles of true journalism. It insults
those still alive like Helen, and trashes my father's memory. I'm sure Nance Greggs still
remembers his last column that he sent with the last energy he had before he died. I posted
it here on DU. Or take any of Helen Thomas' columns in the last 50 years. Tell me THAT is
the writing of corporate whores, and I'll tell you where to stick blanket condemnations like
the ones I saw on the other thread.