"Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed The Public," [1] on April 19 at the Bethesda Literary Festival.

Thomas was less unforgiving about Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton. She said that although she has made some mistakes in her campaign and still voted to authorize the Iraq war, she wasn't getting the same free pass Obama had gotten from the media.

"Hell yes, he sure has," Thomas said, after being asked if Obama had been given a free ride by the media. "Hillary has been pilloried. And, I'm not saying she's faultless - she's made many, many more mistakes [than] Obama did. I think there is a question if - if you're anti-women, that's okay generally. If you're anti-black, you're a racist. I think more people, a lot of people are afraid of being called racists by opposing Obama. And I'm not saying he hasn't been a very eloquent orator. He's won a lot of people over."

Not diverting too far from her opinion on bloggers earlier this year, where she blamed them for the Iraq war at an event at the National Press Club in January [2], Thomas told the audience that the power of the blogs scares her.

"Everybody with a laptop thinks they're a journalist," Thomas said. "And, real journalists know that we have standards, we have ethics. We understand we can ruin lives and reputations forever. There's no recourse and so forth. So I'm really afraid of the blogs. They can say anything and throw anything into the wind and it will be picked up. I'm glad we have communication and I'm glad there's more information out there. With no constraints of people putting anything out there - and people will leap in - I think it's pretty dangerous."