Don’t let this year’s WHCA dinner turn into another political disaster

In tapping presidential biographer Ron Chernow as its featured speaker, the White House Correspondents’ Association clearly got the message after last year’s debacle, when it hired yet another overwhelmingly biased comedian who hijacked its annual dinner. 

Of course, Chernow, best known as the biographer behind books on Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, will not bring the kind of buzz and media attention that WHCA dinners of the recent past have delivered. But that’s actually a good thing, if rewarding great journalism while supporting young aspiring journalists is the primary point of the evening.

More and more, particularly in this decade, the WHCA had become lazy in its speaker selections, seemingly picking any name out of a hat of comedians who appeared on Comedy Central: Cecily Strong, Larry Wilmore, Hasan Minhaj, Michelle Wolf.

{mosads}Wolf was particularly repugnant in the eyes of many in the media, after she made jokes apparently about Sarah Sanders’s appearance as the White House press secretary was sitting just a few feet away last April.   

Just how horrific was Wolf’s act? For the first time in channel history for the event, C-SPAN radio stopped broadcasting her performance halfway through and opted instead for a repeat of “Washington Journal”, citing concerns over “compatibility with the FCC’s indecency guidelines.”

Political media — left, right and anywhere in-between  — slammed Wolf while urging the WHCA to refocus and retool the event, if not cancel it permanently. 

That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 29, 2018

Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable. I have experienced insults about my appearance from the president. All women have a duty to unite when these attacks happen and the WHCA owes Sarah an apology.

— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) April 29, 2018

Unfortunately, I don’t think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight.

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 29, 2018

Couldn’t agree more. So much important and amazing journalism this year — that should be the focus, when truth matters and is needed more than ever. It was an embarrassment in the room and surely to the audience at home. https://t.co/vhbnG6tn55

— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) April 29, 2018

Michelle Wolf attacking @PressSec last night was wrong. Full stop.

Being a comedian is one thing, being a bully is something completely different.

As a member of the WHCA, I join many of my colleagues in saying that Sarah deserves an apology.

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) April 29, 2018

Michelle Wolf didn’t fail just because she was (spectacularly) one-sided. It was because she was unnecessarily cruel on a night the WHCA was trying to showcase decency and purpose.

Undermined an otherwise meaningful night.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 29, 2018

Maybe this week —the #WHCA should announce that there will be NO dinner in 2019.  Take the year off.  Instead -use the year to raise a lot money for journalism scholarships (networks step up) – present scholarships & then come back in 2020 with a rebooted -retooled #WHCADinner.

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) April 29, 2018

put WHCD to sleep

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 29, 2018

Wolf, perhaps sensing that she broke the association’s back in its decision to veer away from comedians next year, called the WHCA “cowards” while declaring she was proud of her performance. 

“The @whca are cowards,” she wrote to her 563,000 followers. “The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder.”

The @whca are cowards. The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder. https://t.co/OOIFGuZ731

— Michelle Wolf (@michelleisawolf) November 19, 2018

Wolf’s Netflix program, “The Break,” was launched not long after the Correspondents’ dinner. It was abruptly cancelled after 10 episodes. 

Now, this isn’t to say that Chernow is exactly a pleasing choice to everyone, either. Some on social media are pointing to Chernow’s videotaped statement before the 2016 election urging voters not to elect the Republican nominee. 

2019 White House Correspondents Association dinner will hear from historian Ron Chernow, who begged voters to “please, please, please” reject Trump in 2016 https://t.co/r8R0Vy9ixO via @MailOnline

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) November 19, 2018

“I’m disturbed by the words missing from the Trump campaign: Liberty, justice, freedom and tolerance,” Chernow said at the time. “The only historical movement that Trump alludes to is a shameful one: America First.” 

Olivier Knox of SiriusXM, who serves as WHCA president this year, said the night will be a celebration of the First Amendment with Chernow at the podium.   

{mossecondads}”I’m delighted that Ron will share his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history at the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” said Knox in a statement on Monday. “As we celebrate the importance of a free and independent news media to the health of the republic, I look forward to hearing Ron place this unusual moment in the context of American history.”   

Here’s hoping the April 27, 2019, dinner is one that lives up to Knox’s billing: a celebration of a free, fair press, and an underscoring of the importance of the First Amendment. 

Removing Comedy Central activists posing as comedians completes half the equation for a dignified dinner. The other half — hiring the right speaker who can leave partisanship at home — is another challenge altogether. The last thing the dinner needs is a partisan who uses the platform to turn the evening into another resistance protest marinated in pious condescension to half the country.

Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) is a media reporter for The Hill and host of “What America’s Thinking.”