WHCA Dinner Archives - Page 2 of 5 - White House Correspondents Insider

Bloomberg Cancels Correspondents’ Dinner Afterparty

February 24, 2017 By WHC Insider

Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Bloomberg L.P. will not host its popular afterparty following the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this year, as reported first by Mike Allen at Axios.

As per a spokesperson with Bloomberg:

“We surveyed some of the past attendees and didn’t get as much interest in a party this year as we’ve had in the past, so we decided to focus on the dinner and the WHCA.”

Vanity Fair — Bloomberg’s long term co-host for this annual afterparty – had announced earlier this month it would not participate.

Strong interest in tickets by news organizations suggests the Correspondents’ dinner will be sold out again this year, as always.

Major Garrett: If the Press Skips the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, We’d Prove Trump’s Point

February 10, 2017 By WHC Insider

Photo courtesy of Pixabay / Geralt.

Major Garrett, CBS Chief White House Correspondent, wrote an op ed in the Post Friday to reaffirm his commitment to the Correspondents’ Association and their annual dinner. He urged the media and celebs to appear in order to celebrate the important work of covering the White House and use the dinner to shine a spotlight on educating young journalists, something we need now more than ever.

The Correspondents’ Association sponsors over $100,000 in scholarships awarded at the annual dinner. In 2016, the association began a mentoring program pairing students with members of the WHCA for career advice and counsel.

Garrett argues that journalists that regularly attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but won’t this year because of President Trump, are applying a double-standard.

[N]o self-respecting White House reporter has ever been a president’s prom date, and the dinner isn’t a date at all. It’s a cease-fire with bad wine and crowded tables. And if we, the media, stand Trump up at the proverbial dance because we’re pining for another “date,” we make it that much easier for him to say we’re playing favorites. And in this case, at least, he’d be right.

He makes the point that several media outlets have ignored the dinner for several years. Dean Baquet of The New York Times said in 2011 that his organization has stopped attending because “it just feels like it sends the wrong signal to our readers and viewers, like we are all in it together and it is all a game. It feels uncomfortable.”

However, for those outlets that regularly have attended, avoiding this year’s dinner because of President Trump is hypocritical and sends the wrong message. “If the dinner were canceled because (gasp!) a president made a few snide remarks about White House reporters, that act of self-regard would say that the First Amendment is negotiable and that emotional well-being takes precedence over professional responsibilities. For myself and for my colleagues on the beat, let me say unequivocally: never.”

Instead, Garrett concludes, media outlets should address the perceived challenges and threats of a new administration hostile to the press by renewing their commitment to the WHCA dinner and the First Amendment.

Garret is a former White House Correspondents’ Association board member.

Who Will Headline the Correspondents Dinner?

February 8, 2017 By WHC Insider

Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Over the weekend, Late Night host Stephen Colbert suggested he would “love” to again headline the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April. “I’d love to do it. I mean, when else are you going to stand next to the President and make jokes? But no one will ever ask again.”

Past hosts include Larry Wilmore, Rich Little, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel. Jay Leno currently holds the record for emceeing the event four times: 1987, 2000, 2004 and 2010.

The challenge for this year’s host will be balancing his or her role as entertainment with a presidential administration constantly criticizing the media. Dave Berg, producer of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” summed it up:

“In the past, the big challenge for comedians was, ‘How could I be funnier than President Obama? In most years, his comedy trumped the comedians. This year goes way beyond that. On the one hand, you could be accused of sitting there and skewering Trump and he is captive [at the dinner]. On the other hand, you could be accused of being too soft.”

Director Patrick Gavin, who produced the 2015 documentary Nerd Prom: Inside Washington’s Wildest Week, said this should be a tough decision for any comedian. “If they’re too tough on Trump, they run the risk of violating the ‘singe, but not burn’ principle that guides the dinner… And if they’re too soft… they will suffer the wrath of half of the country that view taking it to Trump as nothing short of a civic requirement.”

Jeff Mason of Reuters, in his role as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, oversees choosing the entertainer. He said recently he has no timeframe currently on when someone will be announced.

President Trump has not yet accepted an invitation to attend the Dinner. The last president to miss was Ronald Reagan in 1981 as he recovered from an assassination attempt.

Stephen Colbert Offers to Host White House Correspondents’ Dinner

February 7, 2017 By WHC Insider

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Over the weekend, Late Night host Stephen Colbert said he would be interested in hosting this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April.

“I’d love to do it,” Colbert said at an 80’s dance party fundraiser for the Montclair Film Festival. “I mean, when else are you going to stand next to the President and make jokes?”

Colbert was the host of the Dinner in 2006, where he roasted then-President George W. Bush. “Everyone who wasn’t in that room loved [the speech],” he reminisced.

The late-night talk show host also discussed how difficult it has been to keep up with current events as host of Late Night since the Inauguration.

“The speed at which the news changes with President Trump is extraordinary,” Colbert said. “We tape the show at 5:30 p.m., but sometimes we have to change the show at 5 p.m. — after rehearsal, when everything is done — we are writing a whole new first act based around something that he has said or done in the last half hour. The balls are coming over the plate so fast with him and I think that’s intentional. [The Trump administration] want[s] their actions to be almost un-discussable. They want to swamp the real media.”

Why the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Is More Important than Ever

February 7, 2017 By WHC Insider

Correspondents’ Dinner place setting. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

White House Correspondents’ Association president and Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason is fighting back against the voices calling for cancellation of the White House Correspondents Dinner. argues the dinner is critically important in the age of Donald Trump and “fake news.”

“It’s about an opportunity to lift up good journalism, celebrate up-and-coming journalism, and celebrate the First Amendment—that’s what we’ll be doing this year. And we do encourage our member organizations to bring as many journalists as they can, because that’s what the dinner is about. It’s also about giving journalists a chance to visit with the sources they cover.”

George Condon of National Journal also pointed out that the dinner is about the First Amendment and members of the media, not the president. “Every president is unhappy with the press, although President Trump is much more vocal and more personal in his attacks. But that doesn’t affect whether you have the dinner, because it doesn’t mean we’re honoring or validating everything a president says.” Here is Mr. Condon’s interview with Tammy Haddad on a Podcast Special on the White House Correspondents Weekend.

Recent news surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has focused mainly on media outlets declining to attend due to various reasons: an administration hostile toward the media, lack of focus at the dinner on important media issues, alternative scheduled events, fostering a too-cozy relationship between the press and the administration.

Jo Miller, showrunner for Bee’s “Full Frontal” show, has said that this year’s dinner “will either be called off or it will probably be the most sinister, awkward event ever.”

Former Association president Ed Chen argues the dinner helps promote better journalism. “If you’re sitting next to a Cabinet secretary or a senior West Wing official, you have that much more time to establish a rapport with that person, and that can only help, rather than hurt.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is scheduled for Saturday April 29. Proceeds from the event will go also fund scholarships for deserving reporters-in-training.

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

January 31, 2017 By WHC Insider

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.

‘Table for Three’ with President Barack Obama and HBO ‘All the Way’ Star Bryan Cranston

May 7, 2016 By WHC Insider

President Obama with actor Bryan Cranston in the private dining room of the Oval Office in the White House. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times

President Barack Obama and Bryan Cranston, who reprises his Tony Award-winning role as President Lyndon B. Johnson in the upcoming HBO Films presentation of All the Way, joined The New York Times‘ Philip Galanes for a Table for Three conversation at the White House on the eve of the 2016 White House Correspondents Dinner.

The candid conversation covered topics from the impact their childhood has had on their roles as parents to the experience of being a celebrity and raising a family in the spotlight.

“It was probably our biggest worry before we came here. And it’s testimony entirely to Michelle and my mother-in-law that they’ve turned out to be such terrific grounded kids,” said Obama about raising children at the country’s most famous residence. “There was a powerful sense that I wanted to get this right. Not that I was going to be perfect, but that I was going to be there, and engage, and try to figure this out.”

Cranston agreed with the need to be present despite the challenges of balancing career and family: “My wife, Robin, was from a stable family, too. There was something so attractive about that. I thought, “This is what I want.” It’s still choppy waters raising kids, but I could never conceive of not being there.”

Galanes pointed out a scene in “All the Way” where LBJ comes out of the Oval Office and bumps into his daughter. Cranston explained that he “pitched that scene. It wasn’t in the play. I wanted you to feel the father’s love and his sense of regret that even though he’s so busy with the world’s problems.”

Obama and Cranston also discussed how the ability to tell a story is important to both of their careers. “When I set out to be an actor, I just wanted to tell stories. The fact that great fortune came and allowed me to become famous is almost a distraction from what I wanted to do,” said Cranston.

On going where people are to get the message out, Obama explained that, “when I want to sign young people up for health care, I’ve got to do ‘Between Two Ferns,’ which ended up being our biggest draw. Now, the flip side of this is the Trump phenomenon, where celebrity itself becomes a credential. If you are famous, then you have merit.”

Does playing a president qualify someone to be president? When Obama told Cranston it was too late for him this cycle, Cranston quickly replied, “It could be a brokered convention. You never know.”

Obama also gave Cranston and Galanes a tour of the White House grounds and Oval Office, a setting that is familiar to Cranston from his role as President Lyndon B. Johnson: “I’ve been in a replica of this room so much I feel like I’ve been here.” Obama noted that President Johnson’s civil rights laws are credited for “ultimately leading to the election of representatives who look like me.”

Read the full article on nytimes.com: Barack Obama and Bryan Cranston on the Roles of a Lifetime

Garden Brunch Guests Share Their Advice For ‘Starting Out And Starting Up’

May 6, 2016 By WHC Insider

As guests arrived at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch, they were asked to share their advice for individuals who are seeking to launch a new career and change the world.

Scroll through the slideshow for insights shared by successful individuals from business, entertainment, media and politics.

►

"Life is about filling your plate with everything you want. Don't push your food around. Don't take less than what you need or more than you can chew. But definitely wipe it clean!" - Rosario Dawson

A special thanks to Microsoft for providing the interactive PPI board.

PHOTOS: Vanity Fair/Bloomberg After Party at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

May 3, 2016 By WHC Insider

The Vanity Fair/Bloomberg White House Correspondents’ Dinner after-party, held this year at the French ambassador’s residence, was – as always – one of the hottest and most glamorous tickets in town.

Google/HBO White House Correspondents’ Weekend Party

May 2, 2016 By WHC Insider

Google, HBO and the Smithsonian American Art Museum partnered on Friday night for a White House Correspondents’ Weekend party to celebrate HBO Films’ “All the Way.” Actor Bryan Cranston and Director Jay Roach were the featured guests.

And if Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren are having this much fun, you know it was a great party. Thank you, HBO and Google!