End the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

At a time when journalism matters more than ever, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner made it a punchline.

The annual black-tie gathering of journalists, politicians and celebrities – toasting each other while roasting politicians – is supposed to celebrate the First Amendment and fund scholarships for student journalists. But Saturday night’s event only bolstered President Donald Trump’s complaint that the media is biased against him.

Absent a major overhaul, it’s time to end this hottest-ticket-in-town event, which does a disservice to journalists everywhere.

Its jokes make people believe reporters aren’t objective. Its jokes further undermine public trust in the media. Its jokes are getting in the way of the journalism.

It’s not just that this year’s featured comedian, Michelle Wolf, came off as mean-spirited, not funny.

It’s that members of the Washington media, who cover a president elected to “drain the swamp,” laughed whole-heartedly. They came across as not only having misunderstood the American electorate in the last election, but still not understanding life outside the beltway.

Trump gets it. So rather than attend the celebrity soiree, he went to the Heartland for a rally that scored political points and raised campaign money.

“Why would I want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me?” the president asked in a fundraising email before the event.

Yes, comedians like Wolf should be able to say whatever they want and face the laughs or boos that follow — at a comedy club or on a TV show.

But when it’s the Washington press corps inviting her to their party, those journalists risk sharing the backlash of jokes that go too far.

It’s out of bounds to mock how Sarah Sanders’ looks and call her an “Uncle Tom” for women, to advocate for Kellyanne Conway to be pinned under a tree and to compare the contributions of Ivanka Trump to that of an empty box of tampons. Wolf ’s cringe-worthy jokes made us feel sorry for these women, whose jobs deserve scrutiny.

Neither can we criticize President Trump for having made harsh assessments of certain women’s looks, then condone a journalism event that sinks to his level.

Defenders of the dinner say it’s OK for the press and politicians to have a night where they let their guard down, share a few drinks and rib one another in the name of a good cause.

It’s been more true in years past, when the jokes were more bipartisan and when past presidents attended to take a turn at the microphone.

But that time is over. And we live in a much more perilous time.

Trump calls the press “the enemy of the people,” words dictators use before shutting down a free press. The president has attacked individual journalists and press organizations in ways we’ve never seen. He wants people to believe the nation’s problems aren’t the nation’s problems, that the problem is journalists telling people what’s going on. He’s also imposed tariffs on newsprint — the paper used to publish newspapers — which is leading to more job losses at media organizations.

This year’s White House correspondents’ dinner only gave the president more ammo.

“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it,” Trump tweeted Monday. “This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for. FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!”

This comes at a time when there are so many important stories to tell.

Climate change. Gun violence. Racial discrimination. An opioid epidemic. Election meddling. Immigration. Public corruption. Objective reporting will be dismissed or ignored if people don’t trust reporters.

The public’s distrust of journalists reaches beyond Washington. We often hear people call something “fake news,” almost with a laugh. But by perpetuating and normalizing this myth, they are undermining an institution so essential to our democracy that it is written into the Constitution.

For the only way citizens can govern themselves — and make smart choices — is if they know what’s going on. And that takes an informed media committed to fairness, integrity and objectivity.