Les Lester's Chronicle, Message Board

Les Lester's Chronicle, Message Board
[ Les Lester's Chronicle, Message Board ]

My Questions on the Almost Tragic White House Press Gala

Posted by Maestro on 4/28/2026, 5:36 pm

Two questions come to mind about this years White House Correspondence Dinner (WHCD), neither of which have anything to do with security or the shooting. One, why did The White House Correspondence Association invite Trump to their gala celebrating freedom of speech considering his dismal record of stomping on the first amendment? And two, why would any member of the press even consider going and breaking bread with him and his shady cohorts?

Kudos to the NABJ

Posted by Maestro on 4/28/2026, 5:38 pm, in reply to "My Questions on the Almost Tragic White House Press Gala"

The National Association of Black Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists have joined more than 250 former broadcast journalists and media groups in urging the White House Correspondents’ Association to make a statement about President Trump’s relentless attacks on the media when it hosts him at Saturday’s annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“The dinner has long served as a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy and a celebration of the First Amendment and the journalists who uphold it,” the group wrote in a letter. “President Trump’s systematic, sustained and unprecedented attacks on the free press … render his presence at such an event a profound contradiction of its purpose.”

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Re: Kudos to the NABJ

Posted by gm on 4/28/2026, 9:14 pm, in reply to "Kudos to the NABJ"

Well, lately, I've not been a big fan of the NABJ; their relationship with mainstream & legacy media has been too much of an incestuous one - after all, many of the mainstream outlets contribute/fund their conventions and support the group on the whole.

On this I give them big props though!
However, given the way Trump has treated Black female reporters at his white house prss briefings, and his racist attacks against the Obama's (comparing them to monkeys!), i'm surprised so many Black journalists attended!

Re: My Questions on the Almost Tragic White House Press Gala

Posted by gm on 4/28/2026, 9:01 pm, in reply to "My Questions on the Almost Tragic White House Press Gala"

Some BBC reporter came up with similar questions but not in the way you've posed it - she didn't have the edge that yours carry.

Most of them went because on a key level they are tied cheek by jowl - they're all part of the establishment's propaganda machinery, even when someone like Trump comes along and both insults & exposes its function and hypocrisy.

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