Absent glitter and Trump, journalists laud press freedoms at yearly dinner
WASHINGTON — Prominent Washington journalists, if not Hollywood stars, celebrated the First Amendment during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, an event that lacked the glitter of past years because of the absence of the president of the United States.
With President Donald Trump sending his regrets, the attention was no longer focused on an in-person roasting of the commander in chief and his humorous remarks about politics and the press. Instead, speakers at the dinner promoted press freedom and responsibility and challenged Trump’s accusations of dishonest reporting.
The stars of the night were Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who recounted what they learned about journalism from their reporting for the Washington Post that helped lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation more than 40 years ago.
The evening was not without humor aimed at the press and Trump.
“We’ve got to address the elephant that’s not in the room,” cracked the entertainment headliner, Hasan Minhaj of “The Daily Show” on TV’s Comedy Central. “The leader of our country is not here. And that’s because he lives in Moscow. It’s a very long flight. As for the other guy, I think he’s in Pennsylvania because he can’t take a joke.”
Trump became the first president since Ronald Reagan in 1981 to skip the event — and Reagan was recovering from an assassination attempt.
The correspondents’ dinner was briefly upstaged Saturday afternoon when late-night TV star Samantha Bee of “Full Frontal” pulled in celebrities for the first “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
Bee’s taped show, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to U.S. news organizations benefiting the Committee to Protect Journalists, featured actor Will Ferrell and other guests roasting Trump and his allies.