The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) — aka “Nerd Prom” — is generally a night where a bunch of not very clever people get together and tell each other they’re the cleverest people on Earth. If there is a Democrat in the White House, they kiss his rear end all night. If there is a Republican president, they savage him and everyone who works for him.
Well, they hire a comedian to do the dirty work, but they laugh at it all.
The 2018 went so far off the rails that many respected members of decidedly left-leaning media outlets immediately took to Twitter to express dissatisfaction with comedian Michelle Wolf’s “roasting,” in particular her treatment of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Here, in no particular order, are various surprising tweeets from the media, talking about the media.
1: “Cringeworthy”
When you’ve lost CNN…
CNN Reporters At WHCD React to Michelle Wolf: 'It Was Uncomfortable,' 'Cringeworthy,' 'Harsh' https://t.co/NMbt6fxyTp pic.twitter.com/SosdwA598r
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) April 29, 2018
2: True, But I Think This Every Year
Hateful and unfunny.
Mocking a woman for her appearance? I guess that counts as woke now—just as long as she isn’t progeessive. Or thin. https://t.co/FjgeIcc79J
— Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) April 29, 2018
3: Will the GOP Unwrap the Gift?
The RNC should already be cutting ads with some of the material from the WHCD.
I sat there, not laughing and aghast at many of the jokes that took mean spirited personal shots, and knew the routine was a political gift to the Trump admin. https://t.co/egLyvEsNcK
— Jon Ward (@jonward11) April 29, 2018
4: Dead On
Unfortunately, I don't think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight.
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 29, 2018
5: Well He Got the Last Part Right
There really hasn’t been any journalism going on, especially at CNN.
Couldn’t agree more. So much important and amazing journalism this year — that should be the focus, when truth matters and is needed more than ever. It was an embarrassment in the room and surely to the audience at home. https://t.co/vhbnG6tn55
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) April 29, 2018
6: Sarah Is Tough
That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 29, 2018
7: The Spirit Now Is “Unhinged”
The left replaced humor with snotty snark a long time ago.
The spirit of the event had always been jokes that singe but don’t burn. Reporters who work with her daily appreciate that @presssec was there. https://t.co/PorH9jGJ7G
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) April 29, 2018
8: CNN’s Intern Is Clueless
This one isn’t a critique. On a night when many individual CNN reporters expressed dismay about the dinner, the idiot running the network’s social media called the vileness that Wolf directed at Sanders a roast.
#WHCD host Michelle Wolf roasted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders as she sat just feet away https://t.co/2DNWMG8ntA pic.twitter.com/HFR67vJ62v
— CNN (@CNN) April 29, 2018
9: She Probably Thinks She Was Brilliant Though
Michelle Wolf didn’t fail just because she was (spectacularly) one-sided. It was because she was unnecessarily cruel on a night the WHCA was trying to showcase decency and purpose.
Undermined an otherwise meaningful night.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 29, 2018
10: Everybody Hates DC Reporters
Here is a reality that journalists who work in parts of the country that coastal media types don’t even acknowledge the existence of deal with all the time.
If the #WHCD dinner did anything tonight, it made the chasm between journalists and those who don't trust us, even wider. And those of us based in the red states who work hard every day to prove our objectivity will have to deal with it.
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) April 29, 2018
Here’s a bonus tweet from Bethany Mandel of The Federalist, who summed things up well:
https://twitter.com/bethanyshondark/status/990444052305805312
I spent a lot of time looking over a lot of the #WHCD hashtag after the event and I can assure you that there were still plenty of “compassionate” leftists who thought it was all just grand.
This was a very good opportunity for the Republican Party to show Middle America what the Coastal Media Bubble people think of anyone who disagrees with them politically. As I mentioned earlier, they should be culling material from the WHCD and cutting ads already. That Blue Wave might not end up being so wavy if they do.
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