OPINION:
The “Nerd Prom” is dead.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, whose sole reason for existing is to hold the most pretentious dinner each year in the nation’s capital — featuring mostly famous-for-Washington people (just like celebrities, except they’re neither good-looking nor interesting) — is on life support, and the prognosis is not good.
President Trump hasn’t said yet whether he’ll attend the dinner (he skipped all four the last time he lived in the White House, so don’t hold your breath). And this year, the WHCA suddenly decided to uninvite a “comedian” (we put that in quotes because it’s not Jerry Seinfeld or Nate Bargatze, but instead someone named Amber Ruffin, who we think is a writer for “The Daily Show” or “Late Night” or something, but we just don’t feel like looking it up).
Last month, the WHCA board announced that Ms. Ruffin would be the featured entertainment for the annual dinner on April 26. WHCA President Eugene Daniels, who is openly gay, was effusive in his praise for Ms. Ruffin, also openly gay, when he announced her as the night’s entertainment.
“Amber’s unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate,” he said. “Her perspective will fit right in with the dinner’s tradition of honoring the freedom of the press while roasting the most powerful people on all sides of the aisle and the journalists who cover them.”
But on Saturday, he suddenly announced in a statement that the board had decided to cancel her performance “to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division.”
And that is, in a word, hilarious. Something like 90% of the “journalists” who cover the White House are liberal, and the dinner each year features a “comedian” who focuses hard on bashing Republicans while praising Democrats. The dinner is, in fact, the epitome of “the politics of division,” with the prissy press dressed up in ballgowns and tuxedos as they mock anyone who doesn’t think just like them.
That was about to happen again in 2025. In an appearance on “The Daily Beast” podcast last week, Ms. Ruffin said she was told by the WHCA that “you need to be equal and make sure that you give it to both sides and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that, dude, under no circumstances.’” She went on to say that the Trump White House is staffed with “murderers.” (OMG, so funny, right?)
It gets worse for the WHCA. The White House announced this week that it would be rejiggering the seating chart in its 49-seat briefing room, the purview of the WHCA since it was created in 1921. That prompted threats from the press corps that it would hold a “sit-in” protest, “in which members would return to their old seats and refuse to leave them.” That’s mature.
What’s more, in February, the White House began limiting who was allowed in the “tight pool” — a small group of reporters who serve as the eyes and ears of all correspondents in confined areas, like the Oval Office and Air Force One. The WHCA, which had controlled that function for decades, responded, “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
The association quickly caved, but in a passive-aggressive message to correspondents, it said, “Each of your organizations will have to decide whether or not you will take part in these new, government-appointed pools.”
All that drama came just days after the administration won a temporary ruling that allowed it to ban the heavily biased Associated Press from pooled events. So, it turns out, the White House can decide who gets in and who sits where.
Each year, the WHCA uses the dinner to award a half-dozen “journalists” for their news coverage. Last year, the association lauded reporters from NPR, The Washington Post, Axios and two from The New York Times. The year before: CNN, NY Times, Wash Post, Politico and Reuters. Not exactly a broad spectrum of journalists.
However, Mr. Trump has killed off the party. Sure, they’ll still hold the dinner, but now, the president doesn’t show up to make self-deprecating jokes, and this time around, there isn’t even entertainment. Instead, it will just be journalists saluting themselves and giving one another awards for their great service to America.
Come to think of it, that’s probably exactly what today’s media want after all.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.