President Obama’s last White House Correspondents dinner was cordial and funny. The irony is that in the opening moments of his speech he predicted that this dinner would potentially no longer exist in the future, which is not entirely false. Considering Trump’s first 100 days, it can reasonably be said that the White House Correspondents Association has been continually delegitimized by the current administration. In fact, the last time that Trump attended the White House Correspondents dinner was 6 years ago. In 2011, at this very same dinner, Trump was on the receiving end of unremitting jokes from Seth Meyers and, more importantly, Barrack Obama. Specifically, Obama attacked Trump in terms of his leadership abilities and his personal business ventures. Seth Meyer also made a joke that he heard that Trump was not running for president as a Republican, but as a joke.
Some have speculated that these jokes are what motivated Trump's rally to political success. As a result, Trump aligns himself only with a couple of news outlets: Brietbart and Fox, both of which are hyper-conservative in terms of ideology. Basically, Trump's lack of attendance at this dinner was a big middle finger to the press and their relationship with the White House. On the day of the dinner itself, Trump scheduled a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate his first 100 days in office. Additionally, Trump planned on issuing a statement that his administration would withdraw from the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement during this rally, but did not (because it was, in fact, not true).
This just goes to show how Trump is willing to push the envelope in terms of messing with the press that he does not like. The reason why he planned on this publicity stunt was to interrupt the dinner itself. Sure, all of this can be quite funny, but Trump is making the job of the press that much harder. If Trump cannot trust the press, there is no way that the press will ever trust Trump, so now all of our news exists within this weird gray area between truth and exaggerations. There have been countless news organizations that have stated that they must change the way they report the news. For instance, some reporters from Politico have said in multiple interviews that they sometimes don’t even bother going to White House press conferences. Spicer will tangle the logic any question with lies, or Spicer will report on wrongful facts due to “miscommunication.”
Ultimately, the relationship between the press and the White House is in shambles and it seems that this relationship continues to get worse by the day. What baffles me the most is that even in 2017 some folks continue to believe that Fox News has all the answers simply because Trump says so, while the New York Times (which is the most reputable and oldest news organization in the US) continues to get trashed for no reason at all. On the bright side, all of this has had a direct impact on social activism. There was a fire lit underneath many individuals-- from social justice to climate change, people have started to be mobilized in opposition to the current regime. Hopefully this grassroots activism continues, because at the end of the day that is where real change happens.
