Ron Fournier
National Journal
4/26/2013
Washington never looks more out of touch than it will this weekend, when movie stars, music moguls, media mavens and their advertisers join President Obama at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
It is called the “nerd prom.”
Established decades ago to encourage comity between reporters and The Reported, the dinner has in recent years been overshadowed by star-gazing, extravagant parties and the antics of hired comics. Conan O’Brien entertains the crowd Saturday night.
As we say in Washington, the dinner is “lousy optics” – rarely more so than Saturday night, when the backdrop will be joblessness, a budget deficit, the Boston Marathon bombing and a blood-red line in Syria.
Traditionally, the president addresses the dinner to poke fun at himself and his audience before ending on a sober note. Last year, President Obama closed by praising “a free press that isn’t afraid to ask questions, to examine and to criticize.”
And to party.
H/T Breitbart’s Big Journalism
Related: Palin Slams DC ‘A$$Clowns’ for Throwing ‘Pathetic’ ‘#nerdprom’
Does the White House Correspondents Dinner erode national media’s credibility? at Hot Air.
Gov. Chris Christie attended as HuffPo guest. RG III decided to give it a miss. Tom Brokaw didn’t attend, either, saying, “…what we’re doing with that dinner, as it has been constituted for the past several years, is saying, ‘We’re Versailles. The rest of you eat cake.’”
Fox News Radio’s Todd Starnes wrote on Facebook tonight:
Obama: ‘Rush warned you.’
Yessir, he did. He certainly did.
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