The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has always been a cringefest. Trump just makes it obvious.
This year’s disaster has been decades in the making
The certain awkwardness of President Donald Trump gloating about his presidency in front of a silent press corps at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner — a gala intended to celebrate both free speech and the work of the watchdogs who hold the president accountable — is a trainwreck that should have been averted years ago.
And it’s got very little to do with this particular president, who has denigrated and undermined the Fourth Estate as part of his playbook to weaken journalism’s ability to hold power to account.
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
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Related Knowledge Center: Inside the newsroom
As newsrooms struggle with rickety business models and precarious finances — as well as new technologies — they are deploying an array of editorial responses.
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