The publisher of USA Today says last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ dinner undermined the credibility of the press by featuring a comedian who delivered a “vulgar” routine against the Trump administration.
Publisher Maribel Perez Wadsworth said the comedian, Michelle Wolf, has every right to say what she wants, but said the White House Correspondents’ Association inappropriately chose her to deliver one point of view. Wolf savaged members of the Trump administration and charged that press secretary Sarah Sanders lies routinely.
“Is it appropriate that we invite a celebrity to launch a relentless, and often vulgar, attack on the very people we cover?” she asked in an open letter to the WHCA. “As if we can go back the next day to don our cloak of impartiality and all is well?”
“Our ethical code as journalists demands better of us,” she added. “Therein lies my deeply held conviction that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has lost its way.”
Wadsworth said the performance “served only to undermine our credibility.”
“It amplified a growing, dangerous narrative that the news media are biased and unworthy of the public’s trust,” she wrote.
Wadsworth offered to work with the WHCA to change the format of the dinner.
“I know you agree our credibility is far too important to compromise over a 20-minute abdication of the high road and a few cheap laughs,” she wrote.
