Meg Kinnard tweet on Correspondents' Dinner

[Alma]

This got buried in an avalanche of insults on the politics thread, but I think it's worth its own thread.

The WHCD happened last night. It was the usual series of jokes - told, through the years, usually by liberals, but this time by Michelle Wolf - and Kinnard's tweet bounced around Twitter pretty hard.




Couple questions:

1. Is she right? Do journalists lose credibility with conservatives - who have long been the butt of these jokes, even when Bush was in office - by attending it and lapping up whatever happens there?

2. Does it matter if she's right? I have a friend who's basic position is "I live in New York, the real problem with America is the way we do elections, if it was popular vote, none of those hicks would matter."

3. I've always found the WHCD to be a bizarre embarrassment. Is it time for it to end?

4. Has Twitter and the Internet ruined whatever purpose this dinner had? 20 years ago, did anyone know about this? Did anyone particularly care? Does the Internet Shaming Industrial Complex - or ISIC, for short - distort what is essentially a harmless night?

5. Trump didn't attend, but are the presence of some his workers a kind of perverse genius? Sarah Huckabee Sanders - who get far more criticism than she deserves - became a kind of victim last night at the hands of another woman. She took some awful slings and arrows but, in the process bolstered Trump's claim?

6. Does the media still have a liberal bias problem?

Here are Wolf's jokes: The harshest jokes from Michelle Wolf’s correspondents’ dinner speech

 

[Slacker]

Only the red states work hard and embrace objectivity.

 

[Songbird]

How bad can the WHCD's (proper apostrophe?) be?

I mean, ****, the worst thing that ever happened because of a WHCD is that Obama insulted Trump.

What's the worst that happened cuz of that?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Trump snubbing the WHCD is one thing he's done of which I heartily approve. It is one of the most bogus events on earth. But the idea that a comedy routine somehow affects how people view journalism is funnier than the routine was.

 

[Alma]

Only the red states work hard and embrace objectivity.

People in red states have been told, repeatedly, the media hates Donald Trump and lies about him.

I think Kinnard’s point is the WHCD reinforces that belief.

FWIW, I think very few people embrace objectivity. The difference is this: Liberals tend to suggest conservatives are just too stupid and amoral to know what that is. This would not, in theory, be an excuse for enlightened, noble liberals, so their rejection of it would have to be willful, and presumably for the very best of reasons.

 

[Moderator1]

If this stays on topic, lovely. If it veers off and becomes the de facto politics thread, we'll shut it down and keep the other one locked. I wasn't around last night so I didn't get the "joy" of locking the other one but, yeah, as was noted in there, some of you need help.

Keep this ON TOPIC, don't be assholes and have a lovely day.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Alma, people everywhere, not just in red states, have been told the media hates conservatives for about 50 years now. It's not a recent development, as Spiro Agnew could tell you if he was alive. Some people believe it, but all polling shows a majority does not. The sad truth is, most people do not engage with journalism to any great extent. They watch local news for the weather. They scan the front page of the website and then delve into the movie reviews, food section or sports. Nothing wrong with that, but our self-absorbed profession should realize it.

 

[QYFW]

She’s saying that journalists in red states are now going to hear even more about distrust of the media, and that makes their job harder. Seems kind of obvious.

Also, the SHS stuff was not usual. Or funny.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

People you're trying to cover not liking you is a routine part of journalism and anyone who whines about it gets no sympathy from me.

 

[YankeeFan]

Four dimensional chess!

 

[Alma]

People you're trying to cover not liking you is a routine part of journalism and anyone who whines about it gets no sympathy from me.

Agreed.

The question is: Don’t we think the Obama administration rather liked the NYT, Post, ABC, NBC, etc?

 

[Alma]

Four dimensional chess!

FWIW I think this is possible. And a clever move on Trump’s part if so

 

[Songbird]

SHS and Kellyanne went to product placement the outfits their designers made. They're glitterati whores just like everyone else.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Agreed.

The question is: Don’t we think the Obama administration rather liked the NYT, Post, ABC, NBC, etc?

I didn’t get that idea. No level of fawning is enough for almost any administration. Keep in mind that the Obama administration was embarrassingly non-transparent.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Agreed.

The question is: Don’t we think the Obama administration rather liked the NYT, Post, ABC, NBC, etc?

Nobody likes the Times more than Trump. Maggie Haberman and Mike Schmidt publish damaging story after damaging story and he still talks to them all the time. And if he wasn't on TV, he'd go into clinical depression. There is a lot of WWE in his attacks on the media. He knows his base likes it, but he is a creature of publicity. He knows that, too.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

That guy Schlapp who tweeted about walking out of the dinner in righteous wrath was so pissed off he showed up at the after party. It's all a show for the rubes.

 

[YankeeFan]

I didn’t get that idea. No level of fawning is enough for almost any administration. Keep in mind that the Obama administration was embarrassingly non-transparent.

And thought the press corp was a group of 28-year-old know-nothings, who could be sold any narrative, and be turned into an echo chamber to promote it.

 

[YankeeFan]

That guy Schlapp who tweeted about walking out of the dinner in righteous wrath was so pissed off he showed up at the after party. It's all a show for the rubes.

Who was the host of the after party? There are a bunch of them, right?

I just hope Ivanka Trump didn't keep chef José Andrés out of any of them.

 

[Songbird]

José Andrés'

Damn, man, you got both accents AND the apostrophe right.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Who was the host of the after party? There are a bunch of them, right?

I just hope Ivanka Trump didn't keep chef José Andrés' out of any of them.

He was at the MSNBC after party, which only proves my point all the more.