Canceling an award-winning comedian because she might hurt President Trump’s feelings? That’s one more casualty in the administration’s war on the media. I don’t applaud the decision. And—full disclosure—I am a member of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), whose leadership voted unanimously to retract its invitation for Amber Ruffin to perform at its annual dinner, after comments she made on The Daily Beast Podcast suggesting she might not follow the association’s advice to “make sure you give it to both sides” equally with her set.
“I was like, ‘there’s no f***ing way I’m doing that, dude,‘” Ruffin told co-hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee, adding that Trump’s team “want that false equivalency that the media does.”
For Trump and his macho MAGA movement to crumble—pre-emptively—in the face of some likely barbs is the height of cowardice. They’re the ones who have howled the loudest about “cancel culture,” and how “woke” elites and social justice warriors have muzzled free speech.
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Trump wasn’t even planning to attend the dinner. He’s never recovered from President Obama poking fun at him back in 2011 over the “birthergate” conspiracy, a grievance so raw that it’s believed to have propelled his first run for president.
The Correspondents’ Dinner had crossed the line into wretched excess years ago; last year’s dinner was oversold by 40 tables—or roughly $200,000 received in checks that had to be returned because the venue could only accommodate so many. It’s simply the kind of gaudy and self-important get-together that doesn’t meet the moment our country is in now.
But the current controversy is a symptom of a much larger effort by the Trump administration to take control of the media. “And every time we capitulate, we make it easier for them,” a WHCA member and former officeholder told me. “They’re determined to destroy the credibility of the White House press corps.”
(White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich had quickly jumped on this line of attack, calling Ruffin “hate-filled” in a social-media post and asking, “what kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this?”)
The White House has already taken over the allocation of reporters into the “press pool,” a group of journalists who travel with the president and thus have the most access to Trump. The decision to bar The Associated Press from the pool—over the organization’s refusal to change its style book entry for the Gulf of Mexico to, you guessed it, the Gulf of America—is likely headed to the Supreme Court.
Next is the rumored re-allocation of seating in the press room, with traditional legacy outlets expected to lose prime spots to what the White House calls “new media”—right-wing, partisan publications. Trump has already brought so many of these poseurs and provocateurs into the fold that the room’s side aisles are jammed with standees ready to grab any seat that might be vacant at any given briefing. “You have to arrive a half hour early or you need a pickaxe to remove whoever is there,” said one veteran journalist.
In other words, while the WHCA is taking a well-deserved beating right now, let’s not forget this is all about controlling information and making it difficult to confront Trump. A punchline stings, but uncensored reporting and journalistic excellence packs a much more serious punch.
