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Donald Trump’s expected attendance at Saturday’s annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington for his first time as president will put his administration’s often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Trump will be watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Trump\u2019s planned appearance is rekindling a longer running debate about the dinner and events like it \u2014 in particular, whether it is poor form for journalists to be seen socializing with the people they cover. The New York Times, for example, stopped attending the dinner more than a decade ago for that reason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat was once (a fairly long time ago) a well-intended night of fundraising and camaraderie among professional adversaries is now simply a bad look,\u201d wrote Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the Times, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> and The Associated Press<\/a> in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration\u2019s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump\u2019s efforts to trample freedom of the press.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe White House Correspondents\u2019 dinner reinforces the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy,” said the WHCA president, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News reporter. “As we mark America\u2019s 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure. Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many reporters who attend, however, consider it a valuable opportunity get story ideas and establish personal connections with those in government, one that may pay dividends with returned telephone calls in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Journalists often invite sources as guests at the dinner. It will be noticed Saturday whether administration officials who have also expressed hostility to the press will attend, and with whom they will be sitting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n