White House Correspondents’ Dinner underscores the importance of Black press

By Ashleigh Fields, Particular to the AFRO

Annually the White Home Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) honors the highest journalism and media professionals in America who proceed to interrupt the mildew.

“The free press is a pillar– possibly the pillar of a free society–not the enemy,” mentioned President Biden in his remarks on the dinner. “Tonight, our message is that this: journalism will not be against the law.”

The 2023 occasion marked the primary time since 2016 that the president, vice chairman and their spouses had been all in attendance on the dinner. 

Most of his speech was targeted on upholding freedom of the press, which included requires the discharge of Wall Avenue Journal Moscow correspondent Evan Gershkovich and freelance journalist Austin Tice, who’re each being detained overseas for his or her reporting. 

Earlier than turning the mic over to the comic Roy Wooden Jr., Biden managed to crack a couple of jokes about Fox Information along with respectfully saluting the Black press for his or her work previous and current. Biden additionally singled out The Chicago Defender and Jet Journal for his or her uncooked and revealing experiences chronicling the homicide of Emmett Until. 

He additionally quoted Ida B. Wells, post-Civil Struggle Reconstruction period investigative journalist and human rights advocate who was among the many founders of the Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Individuals, citing her views about turning the sunshine of fact upon wrongs as, “the sacred cost of a free press.” 

There was additionally a robust second of recognition as Biden acknowledged the late Gwen Ifill, a broadcast and print journalist who moderated his first debate for vice chairman. 

Ifill lined eight presidential campaigns over a 25-year span and was the primary African-American girl to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program. She served as moderator of PBS’  Washington Week in Evaluation from — to —-. 

At this 12 months’s dinner she posthumously acquired the Dunnigan-Payne Prize for lifetime profession achievement alongside veteran CBS correspondent Invoice Plante. The award was created in 2022 to lift up the achievements of Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne, the primary two African American girls to function members of the White Home press corps.

Varied collegiate journalists had been honored as White Home Correspondent Affiliation students. College students traveled from throughout the nation to attend the dinner and take part in a non-public press briefing with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre the day prior.

“As an investigative journalist, I attempt to embody what I consider is the true aim of a journalist, as acknowledged by Peter Finley Dunne: ‘Consolation the troubled and afflict the comfy,’” mentioned Mikayla Roberts, a scholarship recipient from Hampton College. “It’s an honor to be validated in my efforts with this award and I stay up for persevering with to do all the things in my energy to be the voice of the folks.”

There have been roughly 2,600 friends in a star-studded crowd that included celebrities like singer-songwriter John Legend, mannequin Winnie Harlow and actress Rosario Dawson. Every ticket bought helps assist the WHCA in securing higher lodging for White Home journalists. This 12 months the group proudly introduced the renovation of the press briefing room which is about to happen over the following two months.

“The press workspace is cramped and the furnishings is actually falling aside. The briefing room seats are mysteriously sticky,” mentioned Tamara Keith, outgoing WHCA president. “And the final time any of this was up to date was when George W. Bush was president.”

As designated entertainer for the occasion, Wooden’s monologue skewered, with out mercy, ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon and ex-Fox Information anchor Tucker Carlson, together with jabs at Vice President Kamala Harris.