President Donald Trump plans to stick a fork in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
President Trump will not attend the annual journalistic love-in in 2017. White House strategists believe Trump’s snub of the controversial gathering of so-called Beltway power brokers and Hollywood’s Beautiful People will serve as the final blow to kill the controversial dinner as a D.C. tradition, White House insiders said.
And Trump doesn’t want any of his administration at the dinner either. Or at the lavish after parties sponsored by media conglomerates.
The so-called “Nerd Prom” has long drawn criticism from many corners, especially since Washington and New York media figures schmooze with politicians and Hollywood personalities while trying to maintain the guise of professional objectivity the rest of the year. The event normally serves as an annual roast of the sitting president but with a twist: D.C. media insiders spend not just one night — but an entire week of events — boozing and sucking up to politicians and Hollywood types, while verbally skewering Conservative figures in U.S. politics. It’s an epic night for many self-bloated names in journalism, especially after having spent most of their formative years stuffed in a gym locker.
President Trump does not want to mix socially with the media or Hollywood celebrities, insiders said. In any capacity. The optics of such imagery would send Americans the wrong message about Trump’s presidency, White House insiders said.
The event truly has become a true snapshot of the corrupt and problematic media in America where reporters cozy up to politicians for selfies when they should be digging into their backgrounds and deal making to generate enterprising news. Unfortunately, such comfortable back-scratching relationships extend far beyond the dinner.
It is hard to fathom the Founding Fathers signing off on such an event as the First Amendment was created to foster healthy and open media checks on political power, Not crawling into bed with it.