White House Correspondents Dinner Lost Its Way, More Like Hollywood Celebrity Awards

Appearing on the Red Carpet 2013. Are these White House journalists?

The focus on celebrity reflects the priorities of the nation, and especially journalism, not just White House journalism.

[From article]
Everyone knows the White House Correspondents Association dinner is broken. What started off decades ago as a stately formal celebration of the best of presidential reporting has morphed into a four-day orgy of everything people outside the Beltway hate about life inside the Beltway—now it's not just one night of clubby backslapping, carousing and drinking between the press and the powerful, it's four full days of signature cocktails and inside jokes that just underscore how out of step the Washington elite is with the rest of the country. It's not us (journalists) versus them (government officials); it's us (Washington) versus them (the rest of America).
[. . .]
The week acts as a tacky and vainglorious self-celebration at a time when most Americans don’t think Washingtonians have much to be commended for.

Even those who enjoy it tend to concede that the week is a circus.
[. . .]
When the White House Correspondents’ Association teamed up with the History Channel in 2014 to make a short video about the Association’s history, this is how they described their own dinner: “The first and foremost mission of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is to promote journalism education through the scholarship fund.”
Those are their words.
So why, then, does the Association only dole out around $100,000 in scholarships annually when some of the richest people in the world are at their dinner? (See: Rupert Murdoch, George Lucas, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Steve Case, Sheila Johnson, Ryan Seacrest.)
Let’s not forget that this is a town known for its fundraising prowess. If you think those folks won’t cut some serious checks for the scholarship program as the president of the United States and other notables look on and applaud you, then you don’t know how fundraising works.
[. . .]
But, this being the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner and all, there should be one area in which the president should get ribbed as much as is warranted: How he treats the press. Ask any White House correspondent: They’re furious about how difficult their jobs have become (for reference, see Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee’s roundup of the “8 ways the Obama administration is blocking information”).
Well, this is your dinner and the president is your guest: Hold him to account.
[. . .]
Most disturbing is the fact that almost half of the Association’s annual outlays go to its executive director, a ratio that Berger called disturbing. In many years, the executive director gets paid more than gets doled out in scholarships.
[. . .]
We’ve made our annual Superbowl a vainglorious self-celebration in a time when everyone outside the Beltway thinks we’re as ugly as it gets.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/white-house-correspondents-dinner-117287.html#.VTwQu90--yM

Nerd Prom Is a Mess
How to fix Washington’s worst week.
By PATRICK GAVIN
April 23, 2015

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http://www.c-span.org/video/?325411-2/2015-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner

April 25, 2015
2015 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
C-Span

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http://nypost.com/2015/04/26/inside-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner-aka-nerd-prom/

Inside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner aka ‘Nerd Prom’
New York Post
By Harry Shuldman
April 26, 2015 | 1:14am