Karoline Leavitt announced she's not attending the White House Correspondents Dinner next month, which looks like an even better decision after the journalists ripped Trump and Musk and Hegseth at the "Gridiron Club" dinner. The Washington Post reported PBS anchor Judy Woodruff "opened up the room with jokes about Mr. Musk’s fathering so many children and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s drinking." Woodruff also wisecracked about "Big Balls," a young Musk DOGE worker.
The New York Times headline on the dinner was "At Gridiron Dinner, Jokes About Trump, Musk and Russia Abound." The reporters are still yukking it up on the Russian collusion references.
Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg -- a major Obama fan -- introduced the coterie of ambassadors from Denmark, Mexico and Canada as the “rebel alliance,” which makes Trump sound like Darth Vader. “Obviously, there’s much about this that’s archaic,” Goldberg told the Post, once he’d returned to his seat, about the Gridiron event. “But I like tradition, and I think these traditions have a civilizing purpose.”
Journalists complain about Trump "curtailing media access," which is ludicrous compared to how little access reporters were given to President Biden.
In an article on the forthcoming White House Correspondents Dinner, an anonymous reporter complained to The Washington Post: “I think there’s a growing sentiment among the press corps that we should not be having the dinner this year....It never has looked great, but now especially, are we really going to be mingling in our tuxes and our ball gowns with members of an administration that is curtailing press access, that is banning the Associated Press over word choice, that are blowing up the pool system and handpicking friendly outlets to replace independent journalists? And we are going to go and party with them? Yeah, that seems like a terrible idea."
That sentiment goes both ways. There's no need to seek a spirit of unity with people who paint you constantly as a Threat to Democracy. They equate themselves and their leftist tilt with democracy, and "independent journalism."
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