At age 88, White House reporter Helen Thomas is covering her 10th President. Her relationship with the most recent President Bush was rocky, especially after she called him “the worst president in American history”. He slammed the door on decades of Thomas tradition by not calling on her at a 2003 press conference and denying Thomas her usual closing of “Thank You, Mr. President”. Bush did not call on her at his final press conference either. Now a columnist with an opinionated agenda, Thomas, strictly speaking, no longer holds an objective news reporting position that earns her that front row seat, but her longevity and career are respected by many. President Obama called on Thomas, back in the front row, last night with a cheerful mention of his “inaugural moment” with the notoriously hard-nosed reporter. After taking care of her question, not to her satisfaction (he ignored her follow up), he called on Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, thereby “bookending”, as the N.Y. Times put it, representatives of old and new media.