Journalists gathered for the defense of press freedom on Saturday, insisting that they “are not the enemy of the people” during a Washington Snubbed media gala by Donald Trump.
The dinner of the Association of Correspondents of the White House (WHCA) was a case in a gourmet without American president, no actor and in particular fewer politicians or Hollywood stars than in recent years.
The event took place in the shadow of a second Trump administration which launched a wave of new attacks against press freedom, unless the Associated Press of the Presidential Pool and the closure of the Voice of America diffuser.
During a typical year, the president attended the WHCA dinner to congratulate journalists for their work, deliver a Jokey speech and take it on the chin as a coementary at their expense. But Trump, who marked the media “the enemy of the people”, gave dinner a large place during his first mandate and remained again this time.
Eugene Daniels, who directs the WHCA, noted that the presidents on both sides of the political specter are invited each year. “We do not invite the Presidents of the United States to this because it is for them,” he said. “We do not invite them because we want to confuse or curry.
“We do not only extend invitations to presidents who say they love journalists or who say that they are defenders of the first amendment and a free press. We invite them to remind them that they should be. ”
Daniels then showed a video editing of the former presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, addressing dinner with self-deprecating jokes while expressing their admiration for the press and its central importance in the safeguard of democracy. Trump was visible by his absence.
As the guests looked at it, Daniels continued: “We, journalists, are a lot. We are competitive and arrogant. We are impatient and sometimes we think we know everything, but we are also human. Our families we miss and the important moments of life at the service of this work.
“We are deeply careful about accuracy and take serious responsibility for being the guards of public confidence. What we are not is the opposition, what we are not, it is the enemy of the people and what we are not, it is the enemy of the state.“” The giant ballroom broke into applause.
The Trump administration has had several skirmishes with the press in recent months. Federal funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS is threatened. Trump also launched legal assault on the CBS private network and the local register of the register in Iowa, and brought to the ABC heel, which paid $ 15 million under the threat of a defamation trial.
Dinner has announced graduate journalists and paid tribute to pioneering figures in the history of the White House press. He has given prizes recognizing excellence in reports, writing and visual journalism. The winners delivered acceptance speeches that took care not to criticize Trump directly but who united on the theme of the defense of the first amendment, which protects freedom of expression.
Alex Thompson d’Axios, who won a prize for the cover of Biden, silenced a room that burst otherwise all night when he called the media for not having investigated Biden’s mental acuity. The problem exploded when the 81 -year -old man gave a disastrous debate performance four months before the elections.
“The decline of President Biden and his concealment by the people around him is a reminder that each white house, whatever the party, is able to deceive,” said Thompson. “But being leaders of truth also means telling the truth about ourselves.
“We understand myself,” we have missed a lot of this story and some people trust us less because of this. We ensure some responsibility for faith in the media to be in such stockings. I say that because the recognition of errors strengthens confidence and defensive in the more eroding way. We should have done better. “
It was a night of a few laughs. The WHCA then canceled the actor Amber Ruffin after calling the Trump administration as “a sort of group of murderers” and said that “no one wanted” to attend dinner.
Ruffin excited his answer to be abandoned, telling the host of Talk-Show Seth Meyers: “We have a free press so that we can be nice to the Republicans with fanciful dinners. This is what he said during the first amendment.”
Dinner – An official opportunity where the dress code is tuxedos and dresses – has welcomed celebrities in recent years such as George Clooney, Carrie Fisher, Tom Hiddleston Scarlett Johansson, Sean Penn and Steven Spielberg. Not Saturday, although Jason Isaacs, the British actor who plays in the last series of The White Lotus, made an appearance.
The managers of the White House and the members of the Congress were also exceptionally rare but included Amy Klobuchar, a democratic senator for Minnesota. She told the Guardian: “I thought it was great. The dinner was back in her roots, honoring these incredible journalists and it was actually very fun. I had the impression of being at journalists from the Academy Awards and it was really good.”
Klobuchar added: “They barely talked about Donald Trump. They just talked about their work and their democratic and republican presidents and why they do it.”
