I’ve been to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner about a dozen times. First, as a Managing Editor at USA Today, where I watched in 2011 as President Obama unloaded on then-private citizen Donald Trump. The billionaire visibly fumed about being the butt of his jokes and having the room of 2,000 cracking up. This mockery went well beyond the typical self-deprecating jabs in which presidents usually engaged.
Trump had been attacking Obama, questioning whether he was born in the US, pushing a “birther” conspiracy.
“Donald Trump is here tonight! Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama said. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”
The incident sparked headlines that may well have persuaded Trump to run for president. And from that point on, he made it his mission to boycott and disparage the dinner.
The main attraction of attending the event — which I haven’t been to in a few years — was to talk to top administration officials who were otherwise unavailable. One year, I brought a senior White House communications official. It was good for networking and picking up tidbits.
But the celebrity mingling was out of control. Journalists vied to bring famous guests as their dates. One colleague at USA Today brought General Colin Powell, and I brought actress Jenny McCarthy. When they sat down next to each other, they engaged in the most awkward conversation I’ve ever seen.
Over the years, I rubbed shoulders with journalism greats Barbara Walters and Walter Cronkite, as well as Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, actor George Clooney, Kevin Spacey (before he was battling sexual allegations), and Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara among many others.
The celebrity aspect of what was called the “nerd prom” obscured almost everything else. It seems boldfaced names were the only thing the media cared about, and it made us look overly star-struck.
Of course, it’s always fascinating to hear from the president himself, especially if he’s telling jokes. That won’t happen until at least 2029. In Trump’s first term, he blew off the Correspondents’ Dinner, and most aides followed his lead.
He said this in 2017 at a rally in Harrisburg: “A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now … I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington’s swamp.”
Two years later, before departing for California, Trump said, “I’m going to hold a rally … because the dinner is so boring and so negative that we’re going to hold a very positive rally.”
Last weekend, the president barred anyone working for him from attending the dinner. This deprived television of the chance to replay some punchlines and engage in Trump-bashing, accomplishing the president’s goal.
While it’s worthwhile to celebrate the First Amendment and raise money for scholarships, it’s not much of a television story without the president. It was, however, a night to tout the virtues of free speech under steady attack from the administration that calls the media the “enemy of the people.”
There was always a comedian lobbing grenades, including at the media. But this year, stand-up comic Amber Ruffin got herself fired before the dinner with the less-than-brilliant move of calling the Trump team a bunch of murderers before what could have been a big Saturday night for her.
The red carpet at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this year lacked the usual glitter and was filled mostly with journalists, except for a handful of B-level names like Bill Nye the Science Guy and The White Lotus actor Jason Isaacs. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. The dinner was created to spotlight the positive work journalists accomplished over the past year. And it had been lost in the shadows behind the glitz and glam. The year’s event was called “somber” and “muted” in headlines.
Without star power, the big news came when Axios reporter Alex Thompson won an award for overall excellence in White House coverage – and ripped fellow journalists for not exposing Joe Biden’s mental decline.
“Every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception,” Thompson said from the dais. And the “media should have done better.” He deserves kudos for taking on members of his own profession, who filled the seats before him. And he had the guts to criticize the coverage of a Democrat, which happens once in a blue moon.
Television used to revel in playing clips of jabs or funny comedian lines. This year, the shows were pretty much left empty-handed. Apparently, we’re not as famous as we think.
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