Thomas, a Kentucky native who grew up in Detroit, arrived in Washington, D.C., during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. She got her foot in journalism's door at the Washington Daily News as a copy aide. It wasn't too much later that Thomas joined United Press International. She joined the White House press corps in 1961. Thomas said she has seen many changes over the last 50-plus years, none of which has been bigger than the way news is delivered to the public.
News is instantaneous.
CNN can go anywhere in the world instantaneous. It's a great leap forward. All the advances in communications are mind boggling. Television, Thomas said, has made getting a story that much more frenzied, and sometimes it is accuracy that pays the price. It's striving not to fall into that type of reporting that keeps Thomas' life and job interesting, she said.