Sunday, February 26, 2017

Trump Sends Media Fingers Flying on Social Media Over Decision on WH Correspondents' Dinner

For the first time in 30 years, the President of the United States will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the Trump hating media is having a fit. Grown adults who have been sounding like unprofessional hacks and only too happy to run with stories from anonymous sources only to have to backtrack and retract the stories later now sound like jilted teenagers. How dare this guy they've abused since November not show up for more from them!

Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus will attend in the president's place.

First, media outlets began announcing the cancellations of their swell parties before and after the White House Correspondents' Dinner. It's all fun and games until the president turns his back on them, though. They want to set the narrative - they want to reject him, not the other way around! 

"The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is taking place despite President Trump’s constant attacks on the media, but The New Yorker and Vanity Fair have pulled out of the festivities, according to The New York Times.
The New Yorker will cancel its annual kickoff party, magazine spokeswoman Natalie Raabe told the Times. In addition, Vanity Fair will not co-sponsor the afterparty, which is typically among the hottest tickets in town and packed with celebrities.
Vanity Fair editor and longtime Trump rival Graydon Carter said, “Trump,” when asked why he will spend the weekend fishing instead of hosting the party, the Times reported."

That's right. In the case of Vanity Fair, it is an old grudge against Trump - it goes back to the 1980's, for heaven's sake. Bloomberg and The New Yorker followed suit.

Today, President Trump tweeted out his decision not to attend the dinner.

"I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"

The reaction on Twitter by reporters was predictable. The delicate, overblown egos of the members of the press cannot be overstated.
Jeremy W. Peters  (NYT) Retweeted Donald J. Trump:

"The latest salvo in his war on the media."

The senior Senate reporter for Roll Call, Niels Lesniewski, tweeted this:
Sounds like someone wants the media talking about itself for the rest of the weekend.

Discredited liberal propagandist Dan Rather tweeted this:
"When the cat's away the mice will play. Wondering how this will play out?"

Senior Entertainment Editor at Daily Beast, Marlow Stern, tweeted that SNL's Alec Baldwin should attend in Trump's place. "The White House Correspondents' Association should invite @AlecBaldwin (as Trump) in his place".

Comedy Central's Kristina Wong tweeted directly to Trump: " realDonald Trump This dinner is going to be so good now."

"Whatever your politics, this is a great development. Good riddance."

Inaccurately, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted: "The last president to outright skip the WHCD was Nixon." I know the trend is for leftists to make the Nixon/Trump comparison but she should at least get the facts right. Ronald Reagan was the last president to "skip" the dinner. He was recovering from his injuries received in his attempted assassination.

The dinner will still take place. The dinners have taken place since 1920. Four dinners have been cancelled or downsized due to death or crisis. Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend.

"The WHCA takes note of President Donald Trump's announcement on Twitter that he does not plan to attend the dinner, which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic," association President Jeff Mason said in a statement.
"We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession," he added."

You may remember the dinner in 2011 when private citizen Trump was the butt of scorching "jokes" from then President Obama and Keynote Speaker Comedian Seth Meyers. Trump was in his birther years and Fox's Greta Van Sustern invited him as a guest.

The dinner has turned into an overblown, gaudy spectacle of Washington insiders, politicians, reporters and celebrities all patting each other on the back and preening for cameras. It highlights the corrupt closeness of the Fourth Estate to the powerful in Washington, D.C.  Most of today's press serve as mouthpieces for the DNC and Democrats. I guarantee most of America has never watched one on C-SPAN or will care about who attends. If it is only a dinner to recognize colleagues and award journalism scholarships, why should any of them care if the president attends and speaks or not? With all that hot air in the room, there are plenty to choose from if a substitute is needed.  



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