A historic weekend looms in Washington, D.C., as Donald Trump attends his first White House Correspondents Dinner as president and a 105-year-old journalism group decides that defending the First Amendment cramps its style.
A bit of history: The first dinner for journalists covering the White House was in 1921, with just a few dozen in attendance. Women weren’t even permitted to attend until 1962.
The dinner hit its stride, though, in 1983 as a tradition of comedians roasting the press and president began with Mark Russell, as President Ronald Reagan looked on. Throw in television coverage and celebrity guests over the years and the dinner became a tough ticket.
I’ve attended a number of times as a former editor of USA Today and despite the White House Correspondents Association’s claim that the event is dedicated to freedom of the press, the evening’s real draws are – roughly in this order – big celebrity guests, the president’s remarks, the comedian’s remarks, lesser celebrity guests and awards to journalists.
Yes, those awards to reporters are important, as is the funding of scholarships and any remarks by anyone in support of journalism. But those gestures pale in comparison to the damage done to a free press by this year’s honored guest, President Trump.
There is no public official in American history who has attacked America’s news media in as sustained, crude and unconstitutional a fashion. Despite that, this group of journalists has seemingly made it a priority to host this man, despite his rejection of previous invitations.
The White House Correspondents Association efforts to appease the president has not been without controversy, as some question whether the organization has sold out. Of course it has. This is actually the first anniversary of the association’s surrender.
After announcing that Amber Ruffin would be the guest comedian at last year’s dinner, the association reversed course in the face of criticism of her selection by the White House.
Just like that, the WHCA announced that the April 25 dinner’s “focus is not on the politics of division” and that Ruffin was no longer welcome. This was a big deal. There had been a 42-year history of rich political satire at the dinner, with barbs thrown at both the press and presidents from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Despite the concession, President Trump did not attend the dinner, but said he considered it because there was no comedian.
This year, the obsequious WHCA embraced a new strategy. There would be no comedian using free speech to offend those in power. Instead the association booked mentalist Oz Pearlman, in another unprecedented move. In the dinner’s history since 1921 I have yet to find a reference to Will Rogers being bumped by Rin Tin Tin.
The WHCA could have invited the president, continued its tradition of political satire and let the chips fall. Instead, it contorted itself to get Trump to attend. For what? A group photo with the man who destroyed their profession?
Kelly McBride, an ethicist and senior vice president at the Poynter Institute offered this concise recap of Trump’s assault on journalists this week:
“On top of calling them traitors, liars and the ‘enemy of the people,’ Trump spent the last year doing everything he could to actually curtail the press, including yanking The Associated Press’ permanent seat in the press pool. Why? Because the AP refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“His defense secretary rescinded the press passes of Pentagon reporters who wouldn’t sign a loyalty oath,” McBride wrote. He got Congress to close the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and pull $500 million a year from the system that guarantees free access to quality journalism and cultural programming. He got DOGE to fire almost all of the 1,300 journalists who worked for Voice of America, the news service the government set up to inform people in countries without a free press.”
A group of 250 journalists, including Dan Rather and Sam Donaldson, have urged the WHCA to push back on Trump’s assaults on the press.
“These are not normal times and this cannot be business as usual with the press standing up to applaud the man who attacks them on a daily basis,“ their letter said.
What the WHCA is doing is like the Sierra Club inviting an arsonist to be guest of honor. Yet an event that real journalists should not want to attend is seeing record demand for tickets, according to the WHCA.
“Madison, Shmadison. Isn’t that a Real Housewife over there?”
This opinion column was written by Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center.
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