David Eldridge
The Washington Times
5/6/2012
Former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw said Sunday that the glitzy annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is damaging the perception of the press among the American public.
“It’s time to rethink that,” the longtime newsman said Sunday in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He said the annual black-tie affair, which features Washington reporters and editors drinking, joking and partying with Hollywood stars and the city’s top lawmakers — including the president — is contributing to the public’s mistrust of the media.
“If there’s ever an event that separates the press from the people they’re supposed to be serving, symbolically, it is that one.” he said.
“That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing, and I think that the Washington press corps has to look at that, and by the way I’m a charter member of the White House Correspondents Association, I was there early on and often enjoyed it, but it’s gone beyond what it needs to be.”
