White House Correspondents Insider

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

Politico Pro Bono Later This Month

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Politico has announced Politico Pro will become a free quarterly magazine while keeping exclusive web-only content for subscribers. Fishbowl NY announced the new quad-nual publication from Allbritton. While it is hyperlocal in covering catch-all issues like energy, technology, lobbying and health care with the slogan “We’ll spare you the boring, jargon-laden stories,” Pro has built itself steadily online over the last year.

Nieman points out the “pricing starts at $3,295 per year. But most Pro subscribers are part of a group membership, and those start at around $8,000 per year for licensing content from a single vertical to five people.” Share the content and you get banned. It’s like all the giddy exclusivity from 2003 of having Hotline sent to your Blackberry and printed for your daily media packet at 6 a.m.

You can hardly put a cost on information in Washington if you recall the exorbitant fees for Hotline. Even if, in the case of “House of Cards,” that information is incorrect it’s still the sexy type of power that makes folks want to eat ribs and address an unseen fourth wall. Still, if Politico Pro could tell us where to find decent ribs to eat while lamenting our attempts to be Secretary of State, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? We’ll wait to see when the new quarterly “will be distributed on Friday, March 22 to every member of Congress, the White House and all federal agencies as well as to 160 newspaper boxes and 100 Washington-area Starbucks. Like POLITICO’s newspaper, the magazine will be free with a circulation of nearly 40,000.”

“When we launched POLITICO Pro in 2011 our mission was to deliver exclusive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting and dominate coverage of the most important policy areas,” said POLITICO Chief Revenue Officer Roy Schwartz. “We are thrilled with how quickly Pro became the essential news source for thousands of policy professionals working at the country’s most influential organizations.”

If you’re feeling particularly generous via social media, you can always use their hashtag: #GoPro2013.

The Running Of The Who's Who for 2013

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The end of the year is for making lists and conjecture about who’ll be in charge come next term. Politico’s already started their weekly half-video/half column Behind the Curtain featuring Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei as they tackle the weeks that were–so far that means immigration and the rebranding of Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan.

Buzzfeed, however, seems to be focused entirely on 2013 with today’s list of the 23 People Who Will Be Running Washington Next Year. This service comes complete with headshots that tell us whether we’re looking at a daytime regular on MSNBC, Fox or CNN–or to provide photographic evidence of Paul Ryan’s Michael Steel, pictured above.
[Read more…]

Rosario Responds to Brokaw and Defends Celebs at WHCD

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On Sunday, NBC’s Tom Brokaw chastized the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Meet the Press by saying:

“…if there’s ever an event that separates the press from the people that they’re supposed to serve symbolically, it is that one.  It is time to rethink it… I don’t think the big press event in Washington should be that kind of glittering event where the whole talk about is Cristal champagne, taking over the Italian Embassy, who had the best party, who got to meet the most people.  That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing.  And I think that the Washington Press Corps has to look at that.  And by the way, I’m a charter member of the White House Correspondents Association.  I was there early on and often, and often enjoyed it.  But it’s gone beyond what it needs to be.”

Politico talked to actress and activist Rosario Dawson (MIB II, Sin City) who talked about how guests “aren’t just showing up on their own.  They’re being invited and they’re guests.” More importantly, they “are very much civically participatory.”  The WHCD serves as an opportunity for cause-driven celebrities to get in front of influential lawmakers and media personalities which may not occur otherwise.

Dawson herself is a spokeswoman for Amtrak’s National Train Day and co-founded an advocacy group, Voto Latino, which empowers Latinos to get involved politically.  In addition to attending the dinner, Dawson also is a regular attendee of the WHC Garden Brunch and this year jumped on stage with Willie Geist and Elle Macpherson and helped give away Jawbone Jamboxes to CURE Epilepsy and White Ribbon Alliance donors.

More from the 2012 WHC Garden Brunch: Pics, Press & Perez

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Here are more fabulous pics of the 2012 Garden Brunch guests and events.  It was such a magical day and the outpouring of support for CURE Epilepsy and The White Ribbon Alliance has been fantastic!

In addition, the press coverage has gone bi-coastal, with stories from Perez Hilton, The Hollywood Reporter, E! Online, Politico, The Huffington Post, The Hill and The Washington Post!

Jake Tapper Honored at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

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While celebrities join Washington’s media and political elite for the Annual White House Correspondents dinner, the stated purpose of the dinner is to honor the great work of Washington’s best reporters.

This year, ABC White House Correspondent Jake Tapper will receive the Merriman Smith award for “excellence in presidential coverage under pressure” in the broadcasting category.  Tapper was chosen for breaking the news that “rating agency Standard & Poor’s was on the verge of downgrading America’s triple-A credit rating because of concerns over political gridlock in Washington.”

In the print category, Politico’s Glenn Thrush, Carrie Budoff Brown, Manu Raju and John Bresnahan won for their reporting on the deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

The award “recognizes presidential news coverage under deadline pressure,” comes with a $2,500 prize and will be presented at the April 28th dinner.

Check out a clip from Tapper’s recent ABC interview he scored with President Clinton:

Full Rep. Anthony Weiner Press Conference Video

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At approximately 4 o’clock eastern time on Monday, June 6th Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted to sending the many lewd photos that have by now made him infamous in the media.  He has also said that he does not plan to resign and apologized to his family and constituents for his mistake.  Below is the full coverage of the conference from Politico.

Palin makes Politico with Brunch Visit

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Politco’s Patrick Gavin scored an interview with Sarah Palin at this year’s White House Correspondent’s Brunch.

When asked about running into Donald Trump she says “He’s our buddy, we appreciate and respect Donald Trump.”

Watch the video below and see the full Politico Click here.

Ben Smith of Politico also wrote a piece on her visit which you can check out here.

Reagan Centennial GOP 2012 Debate Moves to September

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The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, in conjunction with its debate partners NBC News and POLITICO, are moving the Reagan Centennial GOP Presidential Primary Candidates Debate from May 2 to September 14, 2011.

Why the change? Seems not enough contenders are willing to toss their hat into the ring this early. Moving the debate to the fall will allow “enough time for the full slate of candidates to participate,” said John Heubusch, executive director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

“The Reagan Foundation prides itself on sponsoring world-class debates in which all of the major candidates in contention can make their point of view known to the widest possible audience,’ said Heubusch. ‘Although there will be a long and impressive list of Republican candidates who eventually take the field, too few have made the commitment thus far for a debate to be worthwhile in early May.“

For more about the move check out POLITICO and read the full release here: http://politi.co/i2Y5U4