Correspondents’ dinner urged to drop comedy from program
Routine by Michelle Wolf went too far for some journalists
Several news organizations have threatened to withdraw their financial support of the White House correspondents’ dinner next year if the group doesn’t drop the traditional comedy act from the program.
The board of the dinner’s sponsoring organization, the White House Correspondents’ Association, began discussing changes after Saturday night’s entertainer, comedian Michelle Wolf, delivered a standup routine that sparked both outrage and cheers with her jabs at President Donald Trump and administration staffers, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and special adviser Kellyanne Conway.
Upset by the reaction, some members have advised the WHCA’s leadership to get rid of the comedy portion next year — or else. “News organizations are going to make their feelings known that the comedy aspect of the dinner has become too risky for the association and too damaging for the dinner,” said a White House reporter involved in the discussions. “It’s too disruptive.”
The WHCA’s president, Bloomberg reporter Margaret Talev, sounded officially contrite after Wolf’s televised routine scandalized some of Trump’s supporters and brought others rushing to Wolf’s defense. She issued a statement to members, prompted in part by threats of an exodus next year, that read in part, “Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of (the WHCA’s) mission.”
For his part, Trump — who ditched the event for the second year in a row — repeatedly trashed Wolf and the dinner on Sunday and Monday, and offered his suggestion about what to do next: “Put Dinner to rest, or start over!” he tweeted. It’s highly unlikely the WHCA will end the dinner, a Washington ritual dating back to 1921. Almost all of the group’s annual revenue, used to maintain a small office, comes from selling tables at the dinner to news organizations. The dinner’s proceeds also fund the organization’s journalism scholarships.