Calls emerge for a boycott of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner

Already Vanity Fair and the New Yorker have canceled their annual parties associated with the April 29 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, according to the New York Times. And comedian Samantha Bee is planning an alternative event, billed as “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

Now calls are beginning to emerge for an outright boycott of the dinner, which ostensibly highlights the work of journalists, but is traditionally headlined by the man in the Oval Office.

In a recent editorial for U.S. News and World Report, opinion editor Robert Schlesinger questioned whether Donald Trump would show up, saying that, regardless of whether he does, journalists should not. Instead, Schlesinger suggested, reporters should “make other plans that night and if [Trump] does attend, let the ratings- and crowd-obsessed narcissist freak address an empty ballroom.” He also suggested that, “news organizations should buy tickets as usual (it’s for a good cause).”

Beau Willimon, creator and writer of the American version of “House of Cards,” had a similar thought, tweeting yesterday that the press should boycott the dinner entirely, or at least “leave when [Trump] speaks.”

Iranian-American author Reza Aslan echoed those sentiments in a tweet of his own: “I swear to God, any reporter or journalist who attends this should be boycotted.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association received so many inquiries about the fate of this year’s dinner, scheduled to take place at the Washington Hilton, that association president Jeff Mason released a message on Thursday saying the show would go on: “This year, as we do every year, we will celebrate the First Amendment and the role an independent press plays in a healthy republic,” he wrote.

The WHCD faced criticism in recent years, as the dinner has became a celebrity event that allows journalists to hobnob with the very government officials they’re supposed to objectively cover. But this year, emotions are likely to become even more heated - and conflicted. The White House has a highly contentious relationship with the press, with one of Trump’s top advisers, Stephen Bannon, referring to the media as “the opposition party.”

“I’m not quite sure what boycotting the dinner would accomplish,” says Patrick Gavin, a former Politico reporter and creator of “Nerd Prom,” a documentary about the dinner. “Essentially, people are boycotting the president. They’re not really boycotting the dinner.”

At the dinner, awards are given to top White House correspondents, and scholarships are presented to students pursuing careers in media. But that’s not why Hollywood stars now flock to the event, as well as to the dozens of parties that take place before and after it. They’re there to see and be seen, and to mix it up with top journalists and political bigwigs.