Some breaking news just now: FBI director Kash Patel has followed through on his threat to sue The Atlantic. Scroll down for all the details. But first... |
The WHCA's big Trump test |
The White House Correspondents' Association's annual black-tie dinner is this Saturday, which means we'll be hearing about it all week.
We'll hear arguments for the dinner and against the WHCA dinner — heightened by the fact that Donald Trump is attending the event for the first time as president.
Former AP DC bureau chief Ron Fournier acknowledged both sides in this essay yesterday: "Yes, the industry's best reporters will be honored Saturday night with prizes for their work uncovering wrongdoing inside the Trump administration, and the dinner raises money for college scholarships. This is the good work of the WHCA. But why celebrate journalism alongside a man whose concept of news travels the narrow range between 'Trump is a great president' to 'Trump is the greatest president ever'? Why celebrate journalism with a man who hates it?"
Fournier and other critics say it's a bad look. They say it normalizes Trump's anti-democratic assaults on the press. Trump's presence at the event is "a profound contradiction of its purpose," a petition signed by 250+ veteran journalists says.
That petition, released this morning and covered by the NYT, urges the WHCA to use Saturday night's stage for a "forceful defense of freedom of the press and condemnation of those who threaten that freedom."
I have no doubt that this year's president of the WHCA, Weijia Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News, is going to address the First Amendment in her remarks on stage. After all, the WHCA president does so every year.
I called Jiang last night to ask about the week ahead.
"There is no confusion about what this dinner is about," she said. "Everyone in attendance has chosen to be there knowing that it is a dinner dedicated to recognizing the importance of the First Amendment."
"Especially as we mark America's 250th birthday, our decision to gather — as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room — is a reminder of what the free press means in this country," she added.
The dinner, always a jam-packed affair, is completely sold out this year, and many outlets are still asking for more tickets.
|
The case for inviting Trump |
In discussing the WHCA, Jiang consistently points to its membership of White House journalists and its stated mission to "facilitate robust coverage of the presidency."
"I answer to my members," she said.
And none of them, Jiang said, have complained to her about Trump's attendance at the dinner. Some view it as a positive development, given his past boycotts.
Reporters "are looking forward to the president's attendance,” Jiang said.
"We cover the White House," she added. "And when you cover any subject, you want to be around your subject."
Trump is arguably even more accessible to the press corps in his second term, now that so many reporters have his cell phone number. But accessibility has rarely been the problem. Accuracy, consistency, decency — those have been the problems.
Earlier this month, The Guardian's Jeremy Barr quoted an anonymous WH correspondent who said, "I understand it's customary to invite the president, but we've never had a president like this before. It’s not about party affiliation. It's not even about policy. It's about the war he and his administration have conducted on the press and the First Amendment and our ability to do our job."
But to not invite Trump would make the WHCA a political actor and likely weaken its efforts to keep open, productive lines of communication with the White House.
Some analysts have speculated that Trump accepted the invite this year to spike the football in front of a defeated press corps. No one knows how long he'll talk or what he'll say.
However, there's a strong counterargument that Trump's attendance is a concession of sorts — an acknowledgment of the press corps' enduring power.
The meta-debate about the dinner will continue all week long because it reflects a discussion that's been going on forever. Is the press supposed to be an ally, an opponent or an observer?
Most WH correspondents are observers — questioning, chronicling, explaining what the president is doing. They supply raw material that other members of the media cite while promoting or condemning his actions. There's no shortage of oppositional coverage out there. But WH correspondents have a distinct job, and it's one worth applauding for one night a year.
|
My POV on the dinner is summed up well by Eric Deggans on Substack.
"Yes, the optics of such an event can be terrible," he writes. But the gatherings themselves are "extremely useful" for reporters: "It's not often, when covering a beat expansive as media or politics, that you get to attend an event which brings together loads of people from your coverage area in one spot on one night. I always view such events as opportunities for source-building, vetting of coverage ideas and networking."
That's why I will be there this weekend. (Thank you, CNN, for the invite.)
Axios noted that "the dinner hasn't seen this much momentum since the Obama era," with "new outlets, companies and political powerbrokers looking to make further inroads in Washington." Even Grindr is throwing a party. So there will be ample coverage of all of it — but news outlets will be wise to keep the focus on the very real First Amendment pressures on the press and ultimately the public.
|
FBI director sues The Atlantic |
Kash Patel has followed through on his vow to sue The Atlantic over
Sarah Fitzpatrick's investigative story, "The FBI Director Is MIA." A few minutes ago, his lawyers filed suit in U.S. District Court in DC, alleging defamation and seeking $250 million in damages.
The suit says the article falsely asserts that Patel "is a habitual drunk, unable to perform the duties of his office, is a threat to public safety, is vulnerable to foreign coercion, has violated DOJ ethics rules," and so forth.
The Atlantic "published these statements with actual malice," the suit says. (Standard reminder here that it's usually very hard for plaintiffs to prove actual malice.)
I'm sure the magazine is working on a new statement now. Over the weekend, editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said, "We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel."
>> Patel foreshadowed the lawsuit in a Sunday morning appearance with Fox's Maria Bartiromo that seemed designed for an Audience of One, aka the president. David Axelrod captioned it "man desperately trying to save job."
>> Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick's story from Friday is still the #2 most-read article on The Atlantic's website...
|
Trump contradicts his own energy secretary on gas prices |
We mentioned Trump's accessibility up top. Here's the latest amazing example: Yesterday Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Americans might not see gas prices fall below $3 per gallon until next year. This morning, when The Hill's Julia Manchester got Trump on the phone, Trump said "no, I think he's wrong on that. Totally wrong."
>> When I read Manchester's reporting, I immediately thought about how Trump was influenced by Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, author of "The Power of Positive Thinking." This 2020 CNN story about Trump's "positive thinking" explains a lot about a lot...
|
War coverage notes and quotes |
>> NBC's latest poll found that "two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war with Iran, with one-third approving." Fully 54% say they strongly disapprove.
>> Republican strategist Jason Roe told Politico, "I think the number one messaging problem has been that every day we're told it's going to end tomorrow, and we're now nearly two months into that promise."
>> This WSJ story from over the weekend is #1 on the site's most-read list and deservedly so: "Behind Trump's Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears."
>> In retrospect, John Dickerson wrote after reading the WSJ story, "that the president thought Iran would be easy should have been the biggest warning."
>> Trump "seems to be on an epic run of picking losing fights," John Oliver said last night on "Last Week Tonight."
|
The 'Free Ahmed' campaign continues |
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin's friends went public about his detention in Kuwait about a week ago. Since then, they've been raising awareness about his case through live shots, social media posts, and a petition calling on Kuwaiti authorities "to immediately and unconditionally release" him.
>> Shihab-Eldin "excels at exposing injustice," and his arrest by Kuwait "deserves the same scrutiny," Rummana Hussain wrote in this piece for the Chicago Sun-Times.
|
Trump's soft spot for Joe Rogan |
Political types are still buzzing about Joe Rogan's appearance with Trump in the Oval Office on Saturday. The president has tried to excommunicate other podcasters who have criticized him over the war in Iran, but he's playing nice with Rogan.
"While others get the vinegar, Rogan is for some reason getting the sugar," CNN's Aaron Blake wrote in this analysis. Perhaps, Blake wrote, that's because Rogan "comes from a much more of an apolitical world" than figures like Tucker Carlson, and is more popular than any of the other podcasters. He's one of a kind.
>> Another possible takeaway about the photo op: Trump voters who break with him for one reason or another often find their way back to him. In Rogan's case, it was an exec order about psychedelic drugs...
|
As we wrote in Saturday's special edition of Reliable, the court ruling against Nexstar-Tegna is a victory for the Democratic state AGs who sued to block the deal, and a reflection of an antitrust divide between the feds and the states. "We're seeing the states step up," Sara Fischer said on CNN over the weekend.
>> Now, "anyone else in the local broadcast space that was thinking about merging or consolidating, they now have to think twice," she added. "It's not going to be a shoo-in for them."
>> NPR's David Folkenflik wrote Saturday: "The outcome of the case will largely hinge on whether DirecTV and the state attorneys general can convincingly show the deal lets Nexstar increase prices for consumers..."
|
ESPN2 yanks doc shortly before air |
"Director Frank Marshall says his documentary 'Rachel, Breathe' was pulled from ESPN2 shortly before it was supposed to air Sunday night due to a disagreement with the network over rights to the project," THR's Kimberly Nordyke reports. The film tells the story of Rachel Foster, who ran the Boston Marathon five months after waking up from a coma.
>> "After several days of negotiations that should have been very simple and were not about money, but rights, the ESPN lawyers stopped talking to us an hour before broadcast and said, 'sign it now or we are pulling the show,'" Marshall wrote in a Sunday X post. ESPN did not respond to THR's request for comment.
|
>> Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground, "will transition to becoming independent when its current first-look deal with Netflix is up later this year." (Deadline)
>> "Buckley Carlson, the 20-something son of Tucker Carlson, has exited Vice President JD Vance's press team and plans to start his own political consulting firm." This, of course, comes amid Trump's repeated attacks on Tucker. (TheWrap)
>> "The Daily Mail's Australian website broke an embargo" by reporting on Harry and Meghan's movements before they landed in the country. Amanda Meade says "the breach will have a major impact on the way the couple deal with all media in the future as it showed the tradition of embargoed information is not respected by some media." (The Guardian)
>> Richard Hanania argues that the "disappearing scientists" storyline on the right is ridiculous "hysteria," and says "right-wing media is increasingly indistinguishable from 'The X-Files.'" (UnHerd)
|
>> Meta "intends to conduct a first wave of sweeping layoffs planned for this year on May 20, with more coming later." So... staffers now have a full month to wonder if they're on the list? (Reuters)
>> "Advertising in ChatGPT is already getting cheaper," Krystal Scanlon reports. "The rate advertisers pay to reach every thousand users has fallen from $60 at launch nine weeks ago to as low as $25 now — and counting." (Digiday)
>> The FTC has "dropped its demand for information from news ratings service NewsGuard," Wendy Davis reports. (MediaDailyNews)
|
Across the entertainment world... |
>> "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" continued to dominate "with an $83.2 million global weekend," reaching a $747.4 million total. "But the bigger deal," Anthony D'Alessandro writes, "is that the Illumination/Nintendo/Universal franchise through two pics has now clicked past $2 billion," putting it in the top 10 animated franchises of all time. (Deadline)
>> Hulu has licensed four more video talk shows, including "comedy podcast 'Handsome' along with rewatch pods for 'New Girl', 'Prison Break' and 'This Is Us.'" (THR)
>> "Comics Unleashed" replacing "The Late Show" may make fiscal sense for CBS, Bill Carter writes, but it's "an open question" how affiliates feel about it. While stations can still sell ads during that time slot, lower expected viewership would make those spots less valuable. (LateNighter)
>> Weekend 2 of Coachella is "traditionally less-newsworthy," but not this year — Madonna, SZA, and Olivia Rodrigo all made surprise appearances, Jem Aswad writes. (Variety)
|
|
|
|
® © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
