There was no president. There was no comedian. What remained at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents Association on Saturday night were journalists and the first amendment.
The stripped festivities were a reflection of the gloomy tone in Washington at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second mandate, in which he has fought with the press on multiple fronts and taken from the Association of correspondents the power to decide which points of sale have the greatest access to Trump.
Trump’s deepest participation in politics began after the then President Barack Obama roasted the presidential ambitions of the New York during the 2011 correspondent dinner. The annual gala was skipped during his first term, and his absence was widely expected this year.
The association discarded an appearance scheduled at this year’s dinner of the comedian Amber Ruffin after he referred to the new administration as “a kind of group of murderers” in a podcast last month. The organization, a non -profit organization that helps white houses to provide a robust coverage of the presidency, decided to renounce the traditional lightness of the event and focus on celebrating journalism.
The president of the association, Eugene Daniels, said in an email the 900 members of the organization last month that dinner was destined to “honor journalistic excellence and a solid and independent media that cover the most powerful office in the world.”
The event, which collects money for journalism scholarships, remains the highlight of the Washington social calendar. The Washington Hilton dance hall was still full of journalists, journalists and even some celebrities. Daniels pointed to Debra Tice, whose son Austin has been missing for a decade since he disappeared in Syria.
“We have been tested and attacked. But every day our members get up, run to the White House (plane, train, car, with a mission, holding the powerful,” Daniels said.
Later he showed a video of previous presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, who went to dinner, saying that the association invites the president to demonstrate the importance of a free press to safeguard democracy.
Trump counterprogrammed the last dinner during his first term, celebrating a rally to compete with the event in 2019, before the pandemic of the Coronavirus canceled dinner 2020. This year, Trump had just fly from the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome and did not have events on Saturday night.
The Trump administration has had multiple skirmishes with the press in recent months. The FCC is investigating several media companies, the administration is working to close the voice of the United States and other points of sale managed by the Government, and Associated Press has demanded the administration for reducing its access to the events because the name of the Gulf of Mexico in line with the executive order of Trump has not changed.
A federal judge has issued a preliminary judicial order that ordered the administration to stop blocking the AP of presidential events. In response, the White House adopted a new press policy that gives the Administration the only discretion about who questions Trump and abruptly reduces the access of three news agencies, including AP, which serves billions of readers worldwide.
For many years before, the correspondent association determined which news organizations had access to limited space events.
Alex Thompson de Axios, who won the Aldo Beckman Award for his coverage of the cover -up of the Decline of Biden while he was in office, approached the complaints of some to the right that the press had become too soft with the Democrat.
“We include, myself, we lost a lot of this story, and some people trust us less,” Thompson told the journalist room. “We have some responsibility for faith in the media in such minimums.”
Saturday dinner also recognized the winners of several journalism awards, in addition to Thompson. Included:
—The prize for excellence in presidential coverage under pressure limit (printing): Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the AP, for informing about the White House altering its transcription to erase Biden calling Trump’s supporters “garbage.”
—The Excellence Award in the presidential coverage under pressure limit (transmission): Rachel Scott of ABC News, for its coverage of Donald Trump’s murder attempt.
—The prize for excellence in the cover of presidential news of visual journalists: Doug Mills of The New York Times, for his photograph of Biden Walking under a painting by Abraham Lincoln.
—The Katharine Graham Award for courage and responsibility: Reuters, for his series on the production and smuggling of the mortal narcotic fentanyl.
–Polier Plegage for the responsibility of the state government: AP for its series, “prison to the plate: benefit from the United States captive workforce.”
—Center for News Integrity Award: Anthony Zurcher of the BBC for its coverage of the consequences of the management of Biden of the Gaza War.
