Jornos should be the very people who know what words mean. But instead they make them meaningless.
After all the blowback, the White House Correspondents' Association boss has claimed that Michelle Wolf's tirades weren't in keeping with the dinner's mission of unity and civility.
"Last night's program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer's monologue was not in the spirit of that mission."
I've got an article that digs into the WHCA's pretensions, including its "scholarship" program.
The White House Correspondents’ Association went from spending 60% of its take on scholarships in 2009 to 23% in 2015. This year, the WHCA boasts that it’s spending $134,500 on scholarships.
That’s comparable to its executive compensation.
In 2016, the Dinner’s gross receipts were $806,250. It spent $452,817 on facilities cost as part of the $553,719 spent on the dinner. The entertainment came to $24,191. That was the year Larry Wilmore (unfunny Daily Show alum #8), wrapped things up by telling Barack Obama, “You did it, my n___!”
"The dinner is not about the president, it's not for or against the president," Margaret Talev, the WHCA boss, insisted on CNN. “It's about elevating good journalism and embracing the first amendment."
I haven’t heard this many lies in one sentence since Hillary Clinton’s last book tour.
So much for the scholarships.
But let's slice and dice the rest of Talev's lies.
The WHC Dinner tends to get its talent from the Daily Show and its imitators. That's not what you do if you're looking for civility or unity. But it is what you do if your goal is to have people who agree with you insult people who don't agree with you.
Wolf just took it far enough that it became tacky and ugly. Even Colbert had enough of a sense of tone that he didn't call Bush's daughters, an empty box of tampons. But this is the tone now.
And Wolf was plugged into it. So was the WHCA.
Talev isn't apologizing for doing something wrong, but for getting caught doing it.
Everyone knew Wolf's routine going in. Her special was titled, Michelle Wolf: Nice Lady. They're disavowing her because the bubble popped for a moment and the media realized how they looked to the rest of the country.
The media exists to divide people. It teaches hate. It destroyed whatever civility we had. And it did it under the guise of practicing higher and noble civic principles.
Wolf's routine tears away those lies. And it shows the ugly, hateful truth underneath.