I'm still a bit fried about the disgusting performance by the comedian at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, at least enough for a second column.
Unfortunately, a few additional facts have come to light, and a little more news has crept out, and it's not particularly flattering. For example, as it turns out (I didn't know, though most people did, I guess), Michelle Wolf, the comic in question, works for The Daily Show, which is a Comedy Central program commenting on the news in a very-left, very anti-President Trump spin. Apparently, last year's comedian was also from that show.
I realize that the year's comedian is selected at the discretion of the president of the correspondents' association that year, but there is a message implicit in the selection of people from the same anti-Trump program in consecutive years. In neither case, of course, did they circle back at the end and conclude with grace and a salute to the people just made fun of, but simply left contemptible smears hanging out there.
Yesterday I mentioned that in the 2013 dinner, in an attempt to be professional, then-association president Ed Henry of Fox News brought in Conan O'Brien, figuring that a real professional would cover both sides, really make fun of the press itself, and keep it fairly clean. I encourage you to read the transcript (here it is for your perusal, please understand the transcription errors -- (http://lybio.net/conan-obrien-remarks-at-2013-white-house-correspondents-dinner-c-span/comedy).
As you see, all sides got tweaked -- not bashed, not profanely ridiculed, no sexual or fecal allusions. It can be done, you see. Of course, I don't know what O'Brien was actually paid to do the gig, but I'm betting it was a fairly substantial fee.
Why do I bring up the fee? Because, at least nominally, the dinner is supposed to raise money for a bunch of $5,000 scholarships for journalism students. The past few years, according to the Washingtonian, the percentage of WHCA revenues that go to scholarships has shrunk to only about 20%, so that even though the actual amount for those scholarships has been creeping up each year, it is still only about $100,000 from the 2018 event.
Imagine, if you will, what the fee to bring in Conan O'Brien was, including expenses. Even a low-end comic like Michelle Wolf had to cost something non-trivial. And yet, with all the well-heeled aristocrats of the publishing industry, with all the tuxedoed celebrities in the audience, they couldn't raise more than $100,000 for the actual purpose of the dinner?
You've got people in that room who tip more than that in the powder room.
So what, pray tell, do you have when you are a member of the esteemed White House Correspondents Association, having worked hard at your profession to get to what is regarded as a high level in your industry? You get to that point and your big evening turns out not only to have been a scummy, low-life bullying attack on (in the case of Sarah Sanders) a person who is not given the opportunity to respond, but the stars you hang out with are too cheap even to kick in a respectable amount to the charity the whole event is nominally held for. Imagine.
Imagine that you are a 20-year-old kid in college. You apply for a 2018 WHCA scholarship to help your career in journalism (no laughing, please) for which you are studying at a school where the tuition is $25,000 a year. You are notified that you won, but all those stars of network news, all those millionaire and billionaire celebrities at the event contribute so little that you (and each of the other 19 awardees) get a whole $5,000, enough for two months of your tuition and barely worth the application.
Then you read a transcript of the remarks by the guest comedian, and they are full of profanity, full of gross sexual references, utterly one-sided, bullying to a guest, and without even an apology thereafter. Do you look at the scholarship you just got, and think, "You know, I think I would be more embarrassed to accept these crumbs from those people, than I would to stand up for integrity, journalistic independence and principle, and tell them to give their trivial contribution as tips to the wait staff for the evening."
Once upon a time I was a 20-year-old kid in college. Two months' tuition at MIT back in 1972 was $540 in that area's dollars. I was borrowing like crazy to get through four years. I would have had a hard time saying "no" to a $540 scholarship. But I would like to think that I would also have had a hard time taking money from people who think that Michelle Wolf is their idea of how to raise charity funds.
I wonder what today's journalism students think.
Copyright 2018 by Robert Sutton
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