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The White House Easter Egg Roll is Back After a Two Year Hiatus 

March 30, 2022 By margaretmturner

Former President Barack Obama at the 2010 Easter Egg Roll

Grab your baskets and get your Sunday best on: the White House Easter Egg Roll is back on Monday, April 18 after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Tickets to the event are lottery style, with an online application live until 10:00 AM ET on Thursday, March 31. Results will be released on April 7.

The Easter Egg Roll is the most popular publicly-attended annual event hosted by the White House, which welcomes thousands of people over the course of the day to participate in festivities on the South Lawn. 

The popular tradition dates back to 1878 when President Rutherford B. Hayes issued an order that if any children should come to the White House to roll their Easter eggs, they would be allowed to do so. Today, children and their parents alike flock to the White House South Lawn to celebrate.

The Washington Kastles Mascots at the 2011 Easter Egg Roll

The Egg Roll marks one of the first notable public White House events to return since the onset of the pandemic. In the last two years, public tours have been postponed, in addition to a dramatic scale-back of the dozens of annual holiday festivities and events.

Thursday’s Easter Egg Roll announcement also included news of rescheduled Spring Garden Tours, which are free and open to members of the public. This year’s tour dates are April 9 and 10. Earlier this month, the White House also announced that public tours will recommence on April 15.

More information about the White House Easter Egg Roll and about entering the lottery can be found here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Barack Obama, biden, DC, easter, eastereggroll, Media, News, Politics, Washington, White House

Shop-For-A-Cause Supporting Dog Tag Bakery At Tyson’s Lafayette148 Store

December 1, 2021 By margaretmturner

Lafayette 148 Holiday Fundraiser

The political stars were out to support the veteran’s hiring program, Dog Tag Bakery, on Tuesday evening November 30th. April Ryan, Hilary Rosen, Anita McBride, and Tammy Haddad invited friends and colleagues to  the holiday shop-for-a-cause at Lafayette148 in Tysons Galleria with proceeds going to support Dog Tag’s work.

Attendees were invited to shop, drink, and enjoy the sweet treats freshly made in Dog Tag Bakery’s Georgetown shop. The non-profit was founded in 2014 by Connie Milstein and Father Rick Curry. More than just a bakery, the Dog Tag Fellowship Program seeks to support veterans, military spouses, and caregivers return to their communities with confidence, support, and a new sense of purpose. 

Lafayette 148 Holiday Fundraiser

Two graduates of the program were styled in the latest Lafayette 148 fashions by King Chong, Megan Boswell from Lafayette HQ and Whitney Harrington and the Tyson’s team. Ms. Jonee Coleman served 10 years in the Army, working as an Army information systems operator/analyst. She has dedicated her time to updating her skills and revising her current business for success. Ms. Ronetta Jones served 13 years in the U.S. Air National Guard. In 2018, she founded XtraOrdinary Solutions, achieving success in business consulting and event operations management. Lindsay Walls, director of development and Elizabeth Vana from Dog Tag Bakery shared program details to the invited guests. 

Lafayette 148 Holiday Fundraiser

Notable guests included Washingtonians old and new. White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Erica Loewe, the White House Director of African American Media were joined by Michelle Obama’s former Chief of Staff Tina Tchen, Kathleen Buhle Biden, Kimberley Fritts, Kendra Barkoff, Susan Davis, Virginia Coyne, Courtney Surls, Tim McBride, Nancy Murphy and Rebecca Kutler.  

 

They were joined by several prominent women in media, such as Wendy Benjaminson from Bloomberg News, CNN’s Abby Phillip, and Axios DC reporter Paige Hopkins. 

Lafayette 148 Holiday Fundraiser

Lafayette 148 New York’s King Chong and Megan Boswell with Whitney Harrington and her entire Tyson’s team cheered on the shoppers!

Lafayette 148 Holiday Fundraiser

Politico Playbook mentioned the event this morning here. 

Lafayette 148 Holiday Fundraiser

To order Dog Tag Bakery treats for your business clients and family click here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, DC, Dog Tag Bakery, lafayette148, Media, philanthropy, Politics, tysonscorner, Veterans

Ron Fournier: Politics and Journalism Will Miss You!

September 2, 2016 By Tammy Haddad

PLEASE ENJOY RON FOURNIER‘S FINAL COLUMN. YOU ARE WELCOME BACK ANYTIME, DEAR FRIEND.

fwiw …

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/a-farewell-guide-to-political-journalism/498494/

By RON FOURNIER
I left political journalism once before—to help launch a social media site designed to engage political influencers in civil conversation. It failed (one critic called it “the idiotic Hotsoup.com”), but among the many lessons I took away from the experience was one about journalism.
In a meeting just before the site launched, my business partners—six of the smartest, most successful political consultants in Washington—debated which reporter would be given an interview announcing our venture.

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I mentioned a particular journalist known to be an easy mark inside the White Houses of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Afraid of confrontation, eager to please, and lazy, this reporter printed whatever minor bits of news and color aides fed him, without skepticism or criticism. I didn’t respect the guy. Nor did most other reporters forced to compete against a patsy who benefited from a policy of mutual-assured promotion.

“He’ll gobble up what we feed him,” I told my partners.

One groaned. Another winced and said, “Yes, but nobody will buy it. Nobody respects him. They’ll know it’s just a press release.”

Until that moment, I assumed the people we covered in politics valued pushover journalists. I thought this particular reporter got ahead by going along. That might be true on the small stories, but not for the stuff that matters.

One of my partners asked about a Washington Post political correspondent known for his tough, insightful coverage. “You think Dan Balz would buy this?”

“I don’t know,” said another. “But if Balz loves Hotsoup, we’re golden. If he hates it, we’re toast.”

Balz never did write about the project, and we were toast. But I left the meeting knowing that if I ever returned to journalism, I didn’t want to be taken for granted liked the first reporter. I wanted to inspire in my sources what Balz had earned from my partners—respect and fear.

Now that I’m leaving political journalism again, I’d like to share a few other things I’ve learned since joining the profession 30 years ago in Arkansas, where I covered Bill Clinton.

Don’t lose sight of your mission. A reporter’s job is to get as close to the truth as possible, overriding personal biases and sifting through a rising churn of spin and lies to explain what happened and why it matters. At its highest levels, journalism informs (via scoops and insights that would otherwise be unknown), provokes (via new thoughts and action), and holds powerful people accountable (with no fear or favor).

You’re not working for your editors, other reporters on your beat, or your sources. You’re working for the public, your audience, which is why you don’t slip acronyms, anonymous quotes, and other insidery detail into your stories just to impress folks on your beat. Also, remember for whom you work when you’re rewriting a press release or broadcasting a spoon-fed story for the wrong reasons—“because I’ve got to keep them happy” or “I’ve got to show them I’m relevant, that I’m the reporter they come to.” That’s how you become a patsy. It’s not how you develop sources.

A reporter’s job is to get as close to the truth as possible.
You develop sources by building relationships. Draw up a list of the people on your beat who know things your audience needs to know. Call or email every one of them and ask them out for coffee or lunch. Keep lists. Keep calling. When you’re meeting a potential source for the first time, keep the conversation informal. Get to know him or her. Where’s she from? How does she get along with her family? What are her hobbies? Write a thank-you note after that first meeting, and follow up for a second and a third and a fourth. Don’t consummate the relationship until you’ve built one; it might take weeks, months, or even years to accumulate enough trust for a source to give you information that is valuable for your audience to know and dangerous for your source to convey. (I conducted workshops at The Associated Press that compared source development to the rituals of dating.)

Don’t hesitate to hurt a source. One of the reasons to build relationships with people you cover is so that they understand your mission, which means they shouldn’t expect favors when they find your job in conflict with theirs. Fairness and honesty are central to any relationship, and nobody likes surprises, which is why I tell sources, “I’ll never stab you in the back. I’ll always stab you in the chest.” In other words, you’ll know when I’m writing about you or your boss, you’ll know exactly how negative the story will be, and you’ll get a chance to argue your case—but you’ll still get the sharp end of the knife. A reporter’s job isn’t to make friends. It’s to build relationships that inform and provoke readers, and to hold powerful people accountable. Remember the Balz lesson: Your sources are more likely to respect you if they’re a little afraid of you.

Don’t cede power to the powerful. I’ve written repeatedly (here, here, and here) about how the media needs to confront a dangerous shift of power away from journalists and toward the people they cover. The short version: Stop ceding control and start doing things that bring powerful people to heel. You don’t like background briefings? Stand up at them and say, “I am filing this briefing to Twitter and quoting you by name.” You want Donald Trump to release his tax records? Impose an embargo on his free airtime until he does so. Campaign officials are bullying one of your reporters over a tough story she did? Get her help: Assign four more reporters to the story and tell them to dig deeper, because apparently she’s on to something. Political operatives are adapting, finding new and ruthless ways to mislead the public. Journalists must adapt, too.

You control the ground rules. An addendum to the rule above, all news and information is on the record and suitable for publication or broadcast, subject to the sole discretion of journalists. On your beat, any exceptions to that rule must be approved in advance by you. A company email marked “off the record” or “on background” and sent to you unsolicited is an email you can publish—on the record. An advanced text of a speech marked “embargoed” and sent to you unsolicited is a speech you can publish—immediately. A government official who tells you something in an interview and then says, “That’s off the record” gets a polite but curt reply, “It’s on the record, sir. I’m a reporter, not a priest.”

You may want to talk on background. Before granting somebody anonymity, ask yourself, “Am I doing this in service of my audience or my ego?” The standard rule for using anonymous sources, published in Associated Press style books used in almost every newsroom, is: “Whenever possible, we pursue information on the record. When the source insists on background or off-the-record ground rules, we must adhere to a strict set of guidelines.” First, the material is information “and not opinion or speculation, and is vital to the news report.” Second, the information is not available on the record. Third, the source is reliable. Many times, the only way to reveal secrets and ugly truths is to disguise the identities of people who expose them.

The truth is rarely black and white or evenly balanced between poles.
Write with authority. Don’t use crutches like “critics say” when the truth can stand on its own. If the president has said something that is factually wrong, just write or say, “The president is wrong.” If you can show the deception is intentional, tell your audience, “The president lied.” Don’t strain for balance or equivalence in a story where there is none. The truth is rarely black and white or evenly balanced between poles. When you’re writing and editing a story, focus on your first paragraph—the lede that tightly explains what happened. But spend the most time on your “nut paragraph,” that chunk of context explaining why the news is important to your audience or what it might say about future behavior. If you’re writing an opinion piece, that “nut paragraph” may actually be your lede.

Politics isn’t just about winning. I loathe political journalism that reduces every development or controversy into a single lazy question: “What does this say about how Candidate X will fare on Election Day?” The better question is often ignored: “What does this say about how Candidate X would govern?” This horserace bias helped fuel Donald Trump’s rise, as each outrageous utterance seemed to be forgotten, if not excused, when polls showed that the callousness was not hurting his poll numbers. In most campaign coverage, “Will he win?” trumped “Should he win?” It wasn’t until Trump’s approval numbers started tanking in general election polling that his suitability for the office became a mainstream issue.

Politics isn’t just a science. For as much as reporters should use data and study political science, they shouldn’t ignore the sociology of the beat. We don’t cover mere numbers or studies or even candidates; we cover people—people who want to lead a nation of people buffeted by a confluence of economic, technological, and demographic change unlike anything the United States has experienced since the late 1800s and early 1900s. Understand that history. Get outside of Washington and ask people how their lives and politics are changing. This is how I wrapped my head around why good people support a bad candidate like Trump, people who I started calling “Crazy Buts.”

Don’t follow the herd. Journalists in Washington tend to chase the same stories based on the same assumptions to reach the same conclusions. Resist the temptation because it’s boring and bad for your career. The way to advance in journalism is to be distinctive, which means telling stories that nobody else is telling, which starts by asking questions nobody else is asking, which can only be done if you ignore the convention wisdom and group think, which takes guts. Take a chance. Take control.

Eventually, the dynamic shifts. You start breaking stories and stabbing people in the chest, and now the powerful people need you more than you need them. You stop begging for information, because now they beg you. “What are you working on?” ask government and campaign officials, the same people who used to ignore your emails and calls—and that’s when you know you’ve got ‘em. They trust you. They respect you. They may or may not like you, but what really matters is this: They’re a little afraid of you.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Journalism, Politics, RON FOURNIER

Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, Dies at 87

April 8, 2013 By WHC Insider

Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the first female British Prime Minister, passed away this morning after experiencing a stroke according to her spokesperson. Thatcher served as leader for the Conservative Party in Britain for 13 years.

President Obama released the following statement:

“With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered. As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best. And as an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the Cold War and extend freedom’s promise.

Here in America, many of us will never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan, reminding the world that we are not simply carried along by the currents of history—we can shape them with moral conviction, unyielding courage and iron will. Michelle and I send our thoughts to the Thatcher family and all the British people as we carry on the work to which she dedicated her life—free peoples standing together, determined to write our own destiny.”

Thatcher was immortalized in the 2011 biopic, The Iron Lady, where Meryl Streep played the former Prime Minister and won an Academy Award for her performance among other accolades from the BAFTA Awwards and New York Film Critic Circle.

Thatcher has battled poor health over the last few years and, according to CNN, has suffered a series of strokes following her first major reported case in 2002.

Thatcher is survived by her two children, Carol and Mark.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: England, Margaret Thatcher, Politics, Washington

Your Guide To Election Day at The Mid-Way

November 2, 2010 By WHC Insider

It’s Election Day and we’ve got nine hours until the polls close for 2010–now we just have 734 days until the next election, and you can be sure that’ll be on the minds of every pundit as of 12:01 am Wednesday morning.

If you’re planning on watching the day’s coverage, TheWrap highlights every major network’s planned schedules–including the overtly confusing ABC/Breitbart kerfuffle.  Don’t want to wait? Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight claims a 54-55 seat gain in the House by GOP from yesterday–the GOP only need 39 to take control. But as Andrea Mitchell said today during an interview with Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss), it’s still a 34 percent pro-GOP vote and appears to be a “firing” election rather than “hiring.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: DC, News Tagged With: 2010 Elections, California, Charlie Crist, Christine O'D, Delaware, Media, New York, Ohio, Politics, Rand Paul, Texas

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About White House Correspondents Insider

Exploring “behind the scenes” of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

We track the White House Correspondents’ weekend and all the activities around it, from journalists and media companies to the White House and politicos.

Tammy Haddad is Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of WHC Insider and CEO of Haddad Media.

White House Correspondents Insider is not affiliated with or approved by the White House Correspondents’ Association, which is a registered trademark of the WHCA.

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