If there’s one thing the national media can thank President Trump for, it’s his completely turning the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner into a must-not-see bore.
The White House announced Friday that Trump, like last year, would not attend, robbing this year’s comedian the chance to make clever jokes to his face, like calling him “the dumbest president ever” and comparing his daughter to “an empty box of tampons.” (Those are actual things Michelle Wolf, who will perform at the dinner this month, has said about the Trumps; she’s certain to bring the house down.)
High-profile journalists have been saying for years that the dinner had grown to a grotesque display in how far removed the Washington and New York-based media are from the rest of America.
Tom Brokaw in 2012 said the dinner “separates the press from the people that they’re supposed to serve” and that it’s “time to rethink it.”
During the Obama years, the event went from a one-night affair to a week’s worth of cocktail parties and brunches, hosted by news organizations, lobbying firms, and tech companies tailgating the affair. Journalists and news publications invited celebrities like Kim Kardashian West to attend as their guests.
In the 2015 documentary “Nerd Prom: Inside Washington’s Wildest Week,” journalist and filmmaker Patrick Gavin described it as “one big business opportunity.”
One scene in the movie shows CNN’s Wolf Blitzer snapping photos of friends in the ballroom, ignoring announcements about young journalism scholarship winners that the event is purportedly held to honor.
Of course, it wasn’t until Trump was elected that journalists made a show of recommitting themselves to their craft and decided that the dinner should be a more solemn ceremony. CNN released a statement last year that instead of inviting a big name as its guest, the network would be bringing along journalism students. “We feel there is no better way to underscore our commitment to the health and longevity of a free press than to celebrate its future,” it said in a statement.
At the same time, NPR ran a segment on journalists “Reconsider[ing] Purpose Of The White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
There was almost no chance Trump was going to attend this year anyway. In a recent eight-minute phone call I had with Trump — the whole thing is in my new book Fraud and Fiction — he spoke on several topics but repeatedly veered back to how unfairly he believed his administration has been covered in the press.
He specifically singled out top CNN executive Jeff Tucker as “a total joke” and “a real loser.”
The president isn’t going, fewer celebrities will attend and maybe Blitzer will sit still while the kids get their scholarships.
Brokaw should send Trump a thank-you note, for making the White House Correspondents’ Dinner great again.
