More than 200 journalists have signed an open letter urging the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) to call out President Donald Trump to his face at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD).
“We, the undersigned, call upon the White House Correspondents’ Association to use the occasion of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press,” the open letter published Monday began. “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. 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.”
The letter continued, “The collective weight of the administration’s actions — retaliatory access bans, coercive regulatory investigations, frivolous lawsuits against the press, defunding of public broadcasting, dismantling of international broadcasting, physical restrictions on journalists, personal verbal attacks on reporters, assaults on the media in official White House press releases and social media posts, the arrest of journalists, and the pardoning of those who committed violence against the press — represent the most systematic and comprehensive assault on freedom of the press by a sitting American president.”
The journalists said this year’s WHCD “cannot be business as usual with the press standing up to applaud the man who attacks them on a daily basis,” urging WHCA leadership to condemn Trump’s threats to the press from the podium.
“Speak forcefully, in front of the man who seeks to undermine our country’s long tradition of an independent, strong, and free press,” the letter stated. “We also urge the WHCA to reaffirm, without equivocation, that freedom of the press is not a partisan issue and that the Association will not normalize this behavior but instead fight back against any officeholder who has waged systematic war against the journalists whose work the dinner celebrates.”
Notable signatories on the letter are former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, former ABC News White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, former NBC News anchor Ann Curry and PBS NewsHour correspondent Stephanie Sy.
The letter included a lengthy list labeled the “Trump Administration’s Attacks on Freedom of the Press.” Among examples listed are Trump’s “Gulf of America” feud with the Associated Press, the Pentagon’s crackdown on press access, Trump’s lawsuit settlements with ABC News and CBS News as well as the various insults he has used against individual journalists.
Several journalism organizations also co-signed the letter, including the National Association of Black Journalists and the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
In response to the letter, a spokesperson for the White House simply pointed to Trump’s Truth Social post announcing he was attending the WHCD, claiming he accepted the invitation because the WHCA asked him “very nicely” and “admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T.”
Rather was famously fired from CBS News for airing an erroneous report in 2004 about President George W. Bush that relied on falsified documents.
This year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner marks Trump’s first time attending as president after boycotting the annual press gala last year and during his first term.
