I’m calling for a full and complete shutdown of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD), just until we can figure out what the hell is going on.
The dinner, which has been given the green light for the first time since 2019, will occur on April 30 with Daily Show host and standup comic Trevor Noah headlining.
Let’s start with the obvious reasons that this dinner is a mistake.
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The ostensibly objective news media and the people who hold the levers of power in this country shouldn’t be schmoozing at a lavish event, filled with a weekend of before and after-parties in its orbit. But if the falsely modest “nerd prom” weren’t already distastefully tone-deaf, the regular addition of Hollywood celebrities into the mix only screams “elitist” a little louder.
This is especially true at a time when many working-class Americans are struggling. It just solidifies the perception that the elites are all in bed together, and that the “politics” they see on TV is just cynical cosplay.
Ok, fine, the WHCA dinner is for charity. But do journalism scholarships really erase the stink of this pageant of hypocrisy? Journalism degrees are often worthless, and leave lots of wide-eyed kids in debt.
One defense of this indefensible dinner is that this is the one night to encourage comity and civility between professionals (journalists and politicians) who normally face off in an adversarial relationship.
The real reason for this night is more self-indulgent: The media dresses up and celebrates itself. Ironically “nerd prom” is for the “cool kids” of media.
The WHCA dinner in the past typically featured a sitting president delivering a comedy routine. Most modern presidents have been pretty good at it, which speaks to the performative nature of the profession. However, one of the unintended consequences of turning statesmen into standups was the election of Donald Trump.
I’m referring to President Barack Obama’s roasting of Trump at the 2011 dinner. Obama “lampooned Mr. Trump’s gaudy taste in décor,” wrote Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns of The New York Times. “He ridiculed his fixation on false rumors that the president had been born in Kenya. He belittled his reality show, The Celebrity Apprentice.”
And what was the result?
“That evening of public abasement, rather than sending Mr. Trump away, accelerated his ferocious efforts to gain stature within the political world,” Haberman and Burns continued in their 2016 article. “And it captured the degree to which Mr. Trump’s campaign is driven by a deep yearning sometimes obscured by his bluster and bragging: a desire to be taken seriously.”
It’s entirely plausible that if the 2011 WHCD never happened, Donald Trump would not have run for president in 2016 in a desperate, yet ultimately successful, attempt at revenge.
As president, Trump boycotted the WHCD, which was consistent with his adversarial view of the press “as enemies of the people,”and his lack of a sense of humor about himself. But before Trump took his monologue and went home, Republican presidents endured these kinds of events by virtue of self-deprecating humor, meant to prove they could take the slings and barbs of the liberal-leaning media and entertainment class graciously (see Gerald Ford pretending to stumble as an homage to Chevy Chase’s portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live).
This tactic backfired on George W. Bush, who famously got in trouble at the 2004 Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner when he joked about something more serious. During a comedic slideshow, Bush showed photos of himself searching for something under furniture in the Oval Office, and quipped: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere.” The crowd erupted in laughter at the time, but the backlash was harsh. One of the foundational arguments for invading Iraq was the existence of WMDs—making light of a disastrous, bloody war sold on false pretenses that you started isn’t a great look.
A couple of months later, Bush appeared at the WHCD, and though he avoided any similar gaffes, he continued the tradition of poking fun at himself.
Today, I suspect that many Republicans would viscerally recoil at the notion of a GOP president self-flagellating for the amusement of people unwilling to give him a fair shake. And things have only gotten worse since then.
Daily Show regular Michelle Wolf as host in 2018 mocked Trump’s press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ looks. Sure Huckabee Sanders was essentially a propagandist for Trump, but there was no need to make it that personal.
Of course, the WHCD’s entertainment these days almost always skews leftward. Yes, the late shock jock Don Imus infamously roasted Bill Clinton 25 years ago, but he was an equal-opportunity offender who only landed at Fox Business after MSNBC dropped its simulcast of his radio show when advertisers pulled out over his racist comments.
Booking Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, screams out-of-touch progressive. I’m not his target audience, but he clearly seems to prioritize scoring left-wing political points over belly laughs, which is fine—if you’re a cable news pundit. If you’re a comic, it’s just “clapter.”
My point is that the WHCD’s choice of comedians nearly always betrays the leftward tilt. Joe Rogan, Dennis Miller, and Adam Carolla are comedians with right-leaning or hard-to-define politics. I don’t expect to see any of them under consideration for presidential roastmaster general.
The WHCD is an antiquated relic that does more harm than good. We should have just let it fade from our collective memory, rather than trying to resurrect this monster.
Like yet another bad remake of Ghostbusters, this is a blast from the past that nobody asked for.
