Variety (“White House Correspondents’ Association Cancels Plans to Feature Comedian Amber Ruffin at Annual Dinner“):
The White House Correspondents’ Association has canceled plans to have comedian Amber Ruffin perform at its annual dinner on April 26, a new sign of the pressures being brought to bear on news organizations during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The journalism group, which has seen its control over interactions with Trump eroded in recent weeks, made the decision after Taylor Budowich, a White House deputy chief of staff, raised comments Ruffin has made in the past that are critical of Trump. Earlier this week, Ruffin told a podcast backed by The Daily Beast that she would not try to make sure her jokes targeted all sides of the political spectrum as the WHCA had requested, and likened the Trump administration to “kind of a bunch of murderers.” Playing to both sides “makes them feel like human beings,” she said, “cause they’re not.”
[…]
“The WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year. At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” WHCA president Eugene Daniels wrote to members in a statement.
“For the past couple of weeks, I have been planning a re-envisioning of our dinner tradition for this year,” he added. “As the date nears, I will share more details of the plans in place to honor journalistic excellence and a robust, independent media covering the most powerful office in the world.
President Donald Trump will not be attending the dinner.
These dinners have long been rather odd, with Presidents showing up to get roasted by comedians and then taking a turn doing a stand-up routine of their own in front of journalists whose job it is to report on them.* That’s been especially problematic in the post-Watergate era, in which the relationship between the press and politicians has been openly adversarial.
Yet, with some rare uncomfortable exceptions (Stephen Colbert’s 2006 roasting of George W. Bush comes to mind), they’ve generally been a welcome respite from the tensions of Washington politics. Bill Clinton and both George Bushes were exceptionally good sports about the whole thing.
The current president is arguably a more natural showman than his predecessors, but his sense of humor is decidedly not strong on self-deprecation. While every other President since Calvin Coolidge way back in 1924 has attended these dinners at least once while in office, Trump has consistently refused. (He did famously attend in 2011, where he was roasted by Obama.)
Regardless, to the extent it makes sense to have a political comic at these events, Ruffin was a poor choice. Her style is just too harsh for what should be a lighthearted event. Historically, the likes of Bob Hope, Danny Thomas, Ed Sullivan, Rich Little, and Jay Leno performed. More strident comics, such as Michelle Wolf in 2018, almost always bomb.
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*This was a favorite topic of our late co-blogger, Doug Mataconis. See, for example
- Tom Brokaw Disses Nerdprom (April 2013)
- Nerd Prom Is Broken, But So Is Our Political Culture (April 2015)
- White House Correspondents Dinner Once Again Demonstrates Why It Shouldn’t Exist (April 2018)
