Comedy & The First Amendment
By Hank
Silverberg
It was painful to laugh this week.
A few hundred journalists, politicians,
White House staffers and friends got together this past weekend at the
Washington Hilton for what is jokingly called the “nerd prom,” and formally
called the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. It’s an annual event
that raises money for scholarships for aspiring journalists, and hands out
awards for some great work by reporters. It began in 1914 as a celebration of
the First Amendment.
I
have been to a few of these during my years as a Washington reporter, and I can
tell you they are sometimes fun, sometimes boring. It’s a good chance to network if you are
job hunting, or socialize with people you normally compete against. You could
tell which news organization is doing well financially by how many tables they
reserve.
For most of its existence, only Washington
insiders knew or cared anything about the dinner. Women were banned from the event until 1962. But since 1993, when
C-Span started to broadcast the event live, the dinner has become more about
celebrities and media stars than about scholarships and awards.
The highlight of the event is usually some
kind of political satire. One of the dinners I attended back in the good old days of
journalism –the 1990’s—featured the very funny Capitol Steps. The tradition of
using comedy took off in 1983 with political satirist Mark Russell as the host.
The President of the United States is
usually among the guests and often the focal point of the comedy; fifteen
Presidents have attended. And that was always considered a celebration of the
Frist Amendment—the freedom to make fun of the leader of the free world and
watch him laugh at himself. The President would then get up and make fun of
reporters. It was amusing and a positive statement about the press and politics in a
free society.
Somehow though, the White House
Correspondent’s dinner has lost that edge and focus. I stopped going long before I stopped being a
reporter because it's black tie only and I hate tuxedoes. I also couldn’t afford
a ticket. So, I got in the habit of watching the dinners on TV, either live or
in a rebroadcast. Most of the time it was a good laugh.
The President was not there again this year. Mr. Trump, as we all know,
hates the media. He says it almost every day borrowing the label, “enemy of the
people,” from Stalin. And it’s pretty
clear to the American public that he can’t take a joke either. (The last
president to skip the event was Ronald Reagan, the year he was recuperating
from an assassination attempt.)
What I saw Saturday night, though, was not
funny. I love political satire but I dislike the
use of foul language. So this year’s Comedian, Michelle Wolf, had me laughing
at some jokes and frowning at her unnecessary use of four letter words, though they didn’t shock me.
After 38
years as a reporter, nothing shocks me. But there was other language that would
have made it just as funny. She wasn’t
the best by far. Stephen Colbert locked that up in 2006 with his very humorous but politically charged assault on George W Bush. Wolf wasn’t the worst, either. That dishonor goes
to Don Imus in 1996, who as usual was crass and just plain stupid in his assault on Bill Clinton. But both of those Presidents sat there and took the hit, coming back with some humor of their own.
There is also a great deal of concern in the
news business right now that this type of fraternization between reporters and
sources, with celebrities mixed in, presents a huge conflict of interest when
it comes to covering those same people in the real
world. For this reason the New York Times stopped participating in the dinner in 2007.
But what actually made me angry last
Saturday night was the “instant analysis” by a five member panel that came on
CNN right after the live broadcast. Okay, it was a slow Saturday night, but
this was too much. I don’t like pundits and news analysis in general, and I have
written about that before. But really? Analyzing, arguing and pontificating
about a comedy performance as a news event?
Even Access Hollywood wouldn’t have
spent more than 30 seconds on that.
Lost in all this was the purpose of the
event--to promote the importance of the First Amendment.
https://hanksilverberg.blogspot.com/2018/04/clear-and-present-danger-by-hank.html
The reaction hours later was even worse with some reporters calling for an apology from Wolf for her stabs at White House Press spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders, to her credit, sat there stoically while she was raked over the coals by Wolf. But while the attack may have been a bit over the top, the bottom line, that Saunders lies daily, was right on point. In the end though, it doesn't really matter what those in attendance think, or what the ridiculous pundits opined on CNN
I suspect the average American tuning in
on CNN or C-Span would have changed the channel quickly, once again using their
own four letter words about the eastern media elite and the D-C Swamp.
As journalists and as a nation, we can do
better than this!
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome. There's a place below to leave them)
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome. There's a place below to leave them)
(If you are interested in a copy of my latest book, you can order it at Amazon.com, BN.com or hanksilverbergbooks.com )
The Vice-President of the United States is conflicted. She has risen to her current job by jumping on the bandwagon with President Andrew Freeman who is now, waging war against America’s biggest enemy—Iran. Amy Roosevelt must make a decision whether to stay with Freeman or challenge him for the nomination. Though back channels she learns that the President’s health is declining. As Roosevelt ponders her decision, a conservative back bench Congressman from Missouri breaks out of the wanna-bees in the other party and also decides to run. All this plays out as the man known only as Ishmael, continues his campaign of violence.
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