The White House Correspondent’s Dinner is this weekend in Washington. They’ll be doing what Washington does best–celebrating themselves.
The Correspondent’s Dinner has been around for a long time. Not every year, but most years, since 1961. It has been televised by C-SPAN every year since 1993. It was designed as a celebration of the First Amendment, awarding great journalism, and raising money for scholarships.
Somewhere along the line, the WHCD became bigger than itself. The comedian “hosts” got edgier and networks started trying to convince the biggest celebrities of the day to sit at their tables. The whole event started being dubbed “nerd prom” in the circles you would expect people to enjoy something called nerd prom.
Things really changed in 2006. At the height of the Iraq War, the liberal tinge of the media was becoming more of a howl and George W. Bush was the target. Pre-Late Show Stephen Colbert was at the height of his faux Bill O’Reilly impression and he skewered Bush to unseen levels at previous WHCD events. I’m a big Colbert fan, but the vitriol of many of his comments were way over the line.
It only progressed from there. Seth Meyers famously mocked Donald Trump in 2011, which some believe prompted Trump to run for president. Trump battled with the media, has been skipping the dinner, and we all remember Michelle Wolf in 2018.
The event is less about celebrating journalism, less about scholarships, and more about highlighting the partisan divide in this country.
It’s time for Nerd Prom to die.
Patrick Pfingsten is an award-winning journalist, political consultant, and PR expert. You can find him on Twitter @pfingsten1 or email him at editor@forwardthinkingpolitics.com. You can also follow Forward Thinking Politics on Facebook and Twitter.
