White House Correspondents Insider

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Archives for January 2017

Samantha Bee to Host Trump Roast Same Night as White House Correspondents Dinner

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The Willard Hotel. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Samantha Bee, host of TBS “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” is planning an roast of President Donald Trump in Washington April 29th titled “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

Scheduled to be held at the Willard Hotel, Ms. Bee and her colleagues stated her event is not designed to compete with the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner, to be held the same evening.

“We’re not trying to supersede it.  We just want to be there in case something happens – or doesn’t happen – and ensure that we get to properly roast the president,” Bee said in a telephone interview with the New York Times.

The television host and comedienne said she and her producers got the idea for their event after November’s election.  “We were talking out loud about whether we thought the White House Correspondents’ dinner would change during a Trump presidency, or if it would even exist.  And then we thought: Why don’t we just do one, just to do it in the way that we would want it done if we were hosting it?”

Although the White House Correspondents Association has not yet announced the entertainment for April’s dinner, Bee said she did not expect to be asked.  “My assumption is that that invitation is not coming, and I don’t blame them for that at all,” she said.

Bee’s roast will likely be broadcast on TBS, although she said the details were still under negotiation.  Attending guests also were still being worked out.  “We have binders full of people, but we don’t have any specifics to offer yet,” Ms. Bee said.

Proceeds from “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” will be donated to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

UPDATE: To see past WHCI coverage of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and related events, please click here.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Wins Big at SAG Awards, Criticizes Refugee Ban

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chris Godsick and Brad Hall. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series at the SAG Awards Sunday night.  Louis-Dreyfus  portrays former president Selina Meyer  on HBO’s Veep. Now, she is taking her formidable speaking skills into the real world to defend American immigrants.

The 2017 Screen Actors Guild kicked off with numerous passionate political speeches, and Louis-Dreyfus began by taking a humorous look at the presidential predicament, before her speech quickly took a serious turn.

She began by joking about current events and President Trump’s propensity to exaggerate and use “alternative facts.”

“Whether the Russians did or did not hack the voting of tonight’s SAG awards, I look out at the million or probably even a million and a half people in this room, and I say this award is legitimate and I won. I’m the winner. The winner is me. Landslide!” Louis-Dreyfus said to a roar of laughter from the audience.

Taking a more serious tone, Louis-Dreyfus referenced her family’s immigrant history and described Trump’s recent immigration ban as a “blemish” on the country and “un-American.”

“My father fled religious persecution in Nazi-occupied France, and I’m an American patriot and I love this country, Louis-Dreyfus continued.  “I am horrified by its blemishes.”

The seven-time Emmy Award-winner concluded her speech by quoting a statement from SAG’s “sister guild” the WGA.

“Our guilds are unions of storytellers who have always welcomed those from other nations, and of varying beliefs, who wish to share their creativity with America. We are grateful to them, we stand with them, we will fight for them.”

Bryan Cranston, friend of White House Correspondents’ Insider, also won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor for his role as LBJ in a Television Movie or Miniseries for HBO’S “All the Way.”

Volta Insider: Rachel Greenberg Covers the Women’s March on Washington

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On the latest episode of the Volta Insider podcast, host Rachel Greenberg discusses her experience covering the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday, January 21st.  The Women’s March was one of the most attended national protests in American history with an estimated 2.9 million attendees.

Greenberg talked about meeting men and women that have never protested, travelling from across the country to our nation’s capital.  Many of the people she interviewed supported different causes, but held the common belief they were showing their support for the equal rights of women in America.

In covering the march, Greenberg said:

“I was not surprised by the enthusiasm of the crowd, but what struck me was the sense of camaraderie that encompassed the march. It was entirely peaceful, even joyous occasion for the protesters. Young children, the elderly, people of color, all marching side-by-side in peaceful solidarity. For as big of a protest as it was, not a single arrest was made.”

You can view a front-row seat to Greenberg’s podcast on the Women’s March on Washington here.  Also, remember to subscribe to the Volta Insider podcast on AudioBoom or iTunes.

Bloomberg’s Top Trump Reporter Adds TV Reporter to His Portfolio

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Howard Fineman and Kevin Cirilli. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Kevin Cirilli is one of the “original reporters” who followed the Donald Trump campaign since Day 1. While most of these reporters joined the White House beat Cirili was named Bloomberg’s Washington Top TV reporter.

A veteran of Politico and The Hill, Cirilii has extensive experience coveraging Congress and the financial committees.

More information can be found here at FishbowlDC.

Superstar Ballerina Misty Copeland Talks Art, Race, and Style with Septime Webre at Georgetown’s Halcyon House

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Misty Copeland and Septime Webre at the Halcyon Stage. 

Septime Webre began his premiere season as artistic director of the brand-new Halcyon Stage arts series in Washington with style, grace, and a dash of humor. He sat down with Misty Copeland, superstar ballerina, for a conversation about her career, her struggles, and her unique popularity, in the concert hall of Georgetown’s Halcyon House.

Among the topics discussed were race, particularly Misty’s role as the first African-American principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater, her new position on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, and her friendship with former President Barack Obama.

Ms. Copeland told the audience that “everyone deserves art and beauty,” in response to a question from Mr. Webre about funding for the arts and the new Trump administration.

Guests including Sachiko Kuno, Kate Goodall, Jayne Sandman, Lydia Logan, Marvin Bowser, Anne Ashmore-Hudson, and over two dozen ARC Ballet students.

In addition to the ongoing Halcyon Stage series, all Halcyon Stage artists will lead in “community sessions”. Webre said among the themes he intends to address as artistic director is “the nature of creativity and its effect on the world.”

You can find out more about Halcyon Stage here.

Misty Copeland and Septime Webre at the Halcyon Stage. 

 

Satchiko Kuno, Misty Copeland and Septime Webre at the Halcyon Stage. 

Connie Milstein, Kristi Rogers, and Rachel Pearson’s Inaugural Salute to the Senate on the Eve of Inauguration

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Connie Milstein toasts the Senators, Haddad Media

The spirit of bipartisanship was in the air at The Jefferson hotel on the eve of the inauguration. Many of the city’s top media stars, politicos, and diplomats, came together Thursday, January 19 to toast the Senate. Hosted by Connie Milstein, Rachel Pearson, and Kristi Rogers, this event was a rare evening as multiple Senators including Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Bob Corker, Deb Fischer, James Lankford, Gary Peters, Mark Warner, and Hawaii’s newest Senator Brian Schatz. House members included Maryland’s Dutch Ruppersberger and Michigan’s Debbie Dingell.

Rachel Pearson and Kristi Rogers lead the toast which celebrated the efforts of everyone in the room to end gridlock in Congress.

The diplomatic corps were well represented at the event. British Ambassador Kim Darroch and Claire Darroch, UAE Ambassador Yousef al Otaiba, German Ambassador Peter Wetting and Huberta von Voss-Wittig, and Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey.

Former House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers, now CNN contributor and radio host, Time Warner’s Carol Melton, Uber’s Niki Christoff, and Lafayette 148’s King Chong joined Steve Clemons, Jeremy and Robyn Bash, Raoul Fernandez, and Heather Podesta.

Washington favorites Kelley McCormick, Polson Kanneth, Melissa Moss, Holly Page, Daniel Lippman and his sister Nadia Szold, Greta Van Susteren and John Coale mixed with out-of-towners MD Anderson’s Dr. Ron DePinho, his wife Dr. Lynda Chin, and media writer Michael Wolff.

Connie Milstein is the proprietor of the Jefferson Hotel and the founder of Dog Tag Bakery.

Obama Alumni Launch New Media Firm

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Jon Favreau, Ben Rhodes, Cody Keenan, Alyssa Mastromonaco, David Axelrod and Dan Pfeiffer. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Several Obama White House alumni and “Keeping it 1600” podcasters have launched a new media company named “Crooked Media.”

Administration veterans Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer plan on expanding their podcast — renaming it to “Pod Save America” — to a multimedia platform for political activism and analysis.

Discussing the new venture, Vietor, formerly Obama’s national security spokesman, said “It’s small and bootstrapped and designed to grow over time… what we noticed is that during the campaign, people looked to us to help narrate and make sense of the day-to-day madness.  And we’re the first ones to admit that we got the results totally wrong. Now they’re asking us, what can we do about Trump? How do we get involved and engaged and be more active?”

Crooked Media plans to expand into additional podcasts, video, and activist recruitment, as a social media counter to efforts on the right.

“I think the lesson from (President-elect Donald) Trump is if you’re filtering every message and idea you have through traditional media, he will swamp you with a Tweet,” Vietor said. “So we need to build up infrastructure that allows people to communicate directly with young people across the country.”

Along with Vietor, Crooked Media brings the experience of Pfeiffer as former White House senior advisor and communications director, Favreau as President Obama’s chief speechwriter, and White House speechwriter Lovett.

Daniel Lippman Exclusive: Media Banned from Trump’s DC Hotel

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Daniel Lippman at AMC’s Turn event, Photo Courtesy Haddad Media


According to Politico’s Daniel Lippman, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC is barring the press from entering the hotel during inauguration week. A Politico reporter attempting to enter the hotel for a previously scheduled meeting was stopped at the door and told that media was not allowed in.

Per Daniel, “The hotel’s decision to ban media from property owned by the federal government and from a hotel controlled by the president-elect comes amid a broader debate over media access to the incoming administration. Trump has resisted forming a protective pool around him, instead opting for a “semi-protective pool” that afford the media less access than previous presidents allowed.”

Politico reached out to Patricia Tang, director of sales and marketing for the hotel, who said, “Media is not allowed in this week in respect of the privacy of our guests.”

You can read Lippman’s full report here.

Sessions Non-Committal On Prosecuting Journalists

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Sessions speaking at a campaign event for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on August 31, 2016. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), nominee for Attorney General under President-election Donald Trump’s incoming administration, dodged a question posed to him during his Senate confirmation hearings on whether he would prosecute journalists for their work.

During the confirmation hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked Sessions whether he would continue current regulations in the Justice Department that require federal prosecutors to receive approval for subpoenaing or prosecuting reporters.  She probed him to pledge not to “put reporters in jail for doing their job.”

His answer was non-committal.

“Senator Klobuchar, I am not sure,” Sessions replied. “I have not studied that, those regulations. I would note that when I was the United States Attorney, we knew, everybody knew, that you could not subpoena a witness or push them to be interviewed if they’re a member of the media, without approval at high levels of the Department of Justice. That was in the 1980s. So I do believe the Department of Justice does have sensitivity to this issue.”

He expanded his answer to take a pessimistic view on journalists reporting about classified information from sources in the federal government.

“For the most part, there is a broadly recognized and proper deference to the news media,” he testified. “But you could have a situation in which media’s not the unbiased media we seen today, and they could be a mechanism through which unlawful intelligence is obtained. There are other dangers that could happen with regard to the federal government that normally doesn’t happen to the media covering murder cases in the states.”

Sessions has opposed a federal shield law in the past, which would prevent journalists from being forced to reveal their confidential sources during investigations by the federal government.

Past Attorneys General, including Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder both serving in the Obama administration, publicly pledged not to imprison journalists.  The Obama administration has subpoenaed reporters to testify in cases prosecuting government employees.  Members of the media refusing to comply were threatened with jail time.  Although no journalists were jailed during the current administration.

New Venture Axios Aims to Fix News Industry

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Jim VandeHei, Jenny Licht and Mike Allen. Photo courtesy of Haddad Media.

The motto for Jim VandeHei, Politico co-founder and CEO of the new news venture Axios, is that “media is broken.” One way he hopes to fix it starts with how the industry obsesses on advertising revenue and site clicks, with journalistic quality an afterthought. He will have at his side, Washington’s top political journalist, Mike Allen.

The political and business news outlet began with a pre-launch platform Monday including an introductory slate of newsletter offerings and will launch in full Jan. 18.  The company begins with the premise that banner ads and long-form native advertising don’t work.

In its place, Axios will only offer advertisers a type of short-form branded content. It will fit all on one screen and will lie more naturally within its editorial concept of providing readers bite-size bits of hard news and information.

“People want more digestible news. They want it shorter and more shareable, so it makes no sense to not have ads structured the same way,” says VandeHei. “To keep doing the same thing as has been done in media nowadays means death.”

Axios launches with 10 advertising partners, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Boeing Co., BP PLC and PepsiCo.