White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Archives for June 2009

"NewsHour," ABC News Cutting Back on RTCA Tables This Year

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McCain And Obama Square Off In First Presidential Debate

Jim Lehrer of PBS' "NewsHour"

Two of the news organizations that won’t be taking as many people to the RTCA dinner this year as in the past are PBS’ “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and ABC News.

In conjunction with “Washington Week with Gwen Ifill & National Journal,” “The Newshour” normally takes 15 tables, but this year, it is down to just two. The show’s financial crunch in the last year, due to corporate underwriting cutbacks, has been well documented.

“It’s a tight economic climate and we can’t afford it,” says Rob Flynn, VP of communications and marketing. “The organization is important to us and we’d like to do more.” Indeed, Linda Scott, producer of Capitol Hill and Congressional coverage for “The NewsHour,” will serve as chair of next year’s dinner.

Despite the smaller presence, the “NewsHour” snagged a high-profile administration guest. Sitting at one of its tables will be retired Marine Gen. James Jones, the National Security Adviser, and his wife Diane.

Also at the tables: “NewsHour” correspondent (and soon to be co-anchor) Judy Woodruff, PBS President CEO Paula Kerger and her husband Joe Kerger; the new COO of PBS, Michael Jones and his wife, Vicki Hawkins-Jones; and Les Crystal, the president of MacNeil Lehrer Productions. Ms. Ifill won’t be in attendance because “Washington Week” duty calls.

ABC News' Jonathan Karl

ABC News' Jonathan Karl

ABC News, meanwhile, will have just a single table. George Stephanopoulos won’t be there, but Jonathan Karl, the network’s senior congressional correspondent, will be in attendance, and of course Robin Sproul, VP and Washington bureau chief.

“We made a decision to cut back and have a smaller presence at the dinner this year. Since the White House Correspondents’ dinner was Obama’s first journalism dinner as President, we had a greater presence there and the guests to show for it. We’d also rather focus our resources on covering the news right now,” said spokeswoman Emily Lenzner.

2009 RADIO AND TELEVISION CORRESPONDENTS DINNER

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Radio and TV Correspondents tell the story of this weeks’ dinner on video.

Wine policy explained in advance via Twitter feed

Not even the Hilton to complain about.


“On June 19, change is coming to Washington press dinners,” the Radio Television Correspondents Association trumpets in a video it posted last month on the dinner’s Facebook fan page and on YouTube.


Instead of a comedian or impressionist, guests at the Convention Center on Friday night will hear music from Sweet Honey in the Rock, the all-female African-American a Capella group that the RTCA dinner organizers tout as “a favorite of the First Lady.” Humor will come from JibJab.com, which says on its blog that it is “beyond thrilled” that its first satire of the Obama Administration will premiere in front of the man himself. (The satirists entertained President George W. Bush with “What We Call the News” at the 2007 dinner, as well.) Onion News Network will have a “special report.”

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

“For our dinner, entertainment is a plural term, not a singular term,” says Heather Dahl, a producer at Feature Story News and the dinner’s chair.

Despite the smaller table buys from some news organizations in this money-crunched year, what will stay the same, she says, is the attendance: Her preliminary estimates are that the crowd will number in the ballpark of recent dinners, around 2,000 attendees.

International news organizations took more tables, Dahl says, and some journalists whose employers refused to pony up for full tables have paid their own way. “I believe this shows that people really want to go out and have a nice evening, so that’s what we’re going to deliver,” she says.

Chaka Kahn Officially Kicks Off Washington Summer Season

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Chaka Kahn Performs in D.C.

Chaka Kahn Performs in D.C.

On a Washington day that threatened rain, legendary soul diva Chaka Khan brought sunshine and heat to the opening of the ninth season of Live! On Woodrow Wilson Plaza — Washington’s longest-running, free outdoor concert series. In front of a crowd of 400 loyal fans, Chaka performed her greatest hits for a 90-minute set, including: “Ain’t Nobody,” “Feel For You,” “I’m Every Woman,” “Tell Me Something Good,” and “Sweet Thing.”

Chaka, in a flowing purple dress and backed by a four-piece band and three back-up soul singers, came out to roaring applause from the crowd.  Dancing and grooving to her own songs, she kept the crowd on their feet, despite the heat. “It’s hot out there!” she shouted with her signature wide smile to the crowd. “I’m already brown, so I don’t need a tan!” The audience — including VIPs in a special tent set on risers with cold water — sang along to every song and die-hard fans brought out old records and images of the singer, including one fan with a purse made of laminated record covers.

The Live! On Woodrow Wilson Plaza series runs from June 3 through September 25, staged on the spacious Washington landmark, Woodrow Wilson Plaza at the entrance of the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building. Performances take place from noon until 1:30 p.m. (One exception: D.C. go-go legend Chuck Brown will take to the stage from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.)

Check out more photos from Chaka Kahn’s performance:

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Air Force One: Riding the "Bird" with President Obama and Jon Meacham

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Obama, Meacham, Gibbs, Haddad in

It is always different; the way a White House informs you that you have the President of the United States for an interview. Sometimes it’s a call to warn an important call is coming, and you better agree to the conditions. Often it is four to six people calling to claim credit for making the interview happen. But, as in most things with Obama, this is a drama free process: just an email asking where you can be reached. This email is from Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director of the Obama White House, and the cool and collected center of the daily press hub since the beginning of the campaign.

Newsweek, along with everyone else, had a request in to the White House to get more of President Obama’s words on the record. The interview is for Jon Meacham, named Newsweek editor at 29, now just 40. Meacham is a poet-historian and, like Obama, a bestselling author. Pfeiffer’s email advises that we will get our interview and it will be on Air Force One. Despite no video or audio, we were pleased and I reply, “We are in.” There was a quick handover to the operations folks for details of the trip to Phoenix for the President’s commencement address at Arizona State University.

Meacham and AF OneI ask Meacham if he’s ever been on Air Force One, and he said only at the Reagan Library. My only time was during my stint running MSNBC’s 2004 election coverage when 30 Rock was transformed into “Democracy Plaza,” — a piece of an Air Force One plane was part of the plaza-wide exhibition.

Meacham and I meet up with Newsweek star photographer Khue Bui, a White House press corps veteran and delightful campaign trail mate, who will round out the Newsweek Air Force One team. We arrive at Andrews Air Force Base looking like the desk jockeys we are; editors and producers aren’t usually allowed out of their bureaus.

We watch as the entire White House traveling press corps arrives for a security check; however, they’ll be traveling on the press charter plane departing ahead of Air Force One.

[Read more…]

Heroic Foreign Journalists Honored

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Jeanne Borugault is Internews' COO and Sr. VP for Programs. She's on the left. To her right is Thepchai Yong from Thailand, Tasneem Ahmar from Pakistain, photojournalist James Nachtwey, and Jean Fedner Chery from Haiti's RAMAK.

Jeanne Borugault is Internews' COO and Sr. VP for Programs. She's on the left. To her right is Thepchai Yong from Thailand, Tasneem Ahmar from Pakistain, photojournalist James Nachtwey, and Jean Fedner Chery from Haiti's RAMAK.Internews Presents the 2009 Recipients of its Media Leadership Awards

Internews Presents the 2009 Recipients of its Media Leadership Awards

by Mitchell Polman

While we were getting a glimpse into the activities of the new President in the NBC Special Inside the Obama White House, Internews, the non-profit headed by board chair Kathy Bushkin-Calvin, held its third annual Media Leadership Awards at the Washington offices of DLA Piper.

What makes this significant is that Internews trains journalists to and media professionals the traditions and advantages of having free press around the world.

A crowd of journalists, diplomats, government officials, and NGO workers gathered to hear the inspiring stories of this year’s honorees from Pakistan, Thailand, and Haiti, and photojournalist James Nachtwey. The event was chaired by Washington Capitals owner and former AOL executive Ted Leonsis. Radio broadcaster Bob Edwards was on hand as master of ceremonies. [Read more…]

Attending Official Receptions: The Art of the Receiving Line

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Packed with Protocol: When the US Entertains at Home and Abroad

The information contained herein is quoted from Social Usage and Protocol Handbook: A Guide for Personnel of the U.S. Navy (OPNAVINST 1710.7 dated 17 JUL 1979) Here is the suggestions that form the basis of official US Protocol.

President Ford Host White House Event for Queen Elizabeth

President Ford Host White House Event for Queen Elizabeth

Receptions are the most popular form of official entertainment for they allow wide variance in the number of guests invited and in the formality of the occasion. They range from the very formal, which might be a reception after 8:00 p.m. hosted by an ambassador in honor of his visiting chief of state, to the less formal, perhaps that hosted by a military attache from 8 to 10 o’clock in the evening in celebration of Armed Forces Day. The most common and least formal affair is held from approximately 6 to 8 o’clock, frequently in honor of a visiting official or in celebration of some event.

Characteristically, receptions differ from the simple cocktail party in that they are intended to honor individuals or a specific occasion, the atmosphere is somewhat more formal, their duration is prescribed, and there is always a receiving line.

The thoughtful host/hostess who plans a reception in honor of a high-ranking official will consult with the latter regarding a mutually agreeable date and time before ordering invitations. As indicated in Invitations, the person or the occasion being feted may be indicated on the invitation in one of several ways.

Guests should arrive before the receiving line disbands, normally within the first 35 minutes of the reception. The order of persons in the receiving line may vary with the type of occasion and desires of the hosting official.

The sequence which the Department of State follows for official functions in honor of high-ranking dignitaries is:

Announcer –– Host –– Guest of Honor –– Guest of Honor’s Wife –– Host’s Wife –– Extra Man

The announcer is often a military aide whose responsibility is to announce each guest by name.

The extra man avoids placing a woman at the end of the line. It is his function to move guests into the reception area. Very often, however, this extra person will make the line entirely too long, in which case he may be eliminated.

An alternative which is equally appropriate and which makes the relationship of those receiving clearer to the guests is:

Announcer –– Host –– Host’s Wife –– Guest of Honor –– Guest of Honor’s Wife –– Extra man [Read more…]