Posted on 04/30/2018 9:59:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
‘Being mean isn’t funny. It’s mean.’ The swells and grandees of the White House Correspondents Association expected to have themselves a hearty laugh blowing up President Trump Saturday night. Instead, the WHCA was so rattled that it pulled the pin on its little comedy grenade and threw the pin at Trump. It held onto the grenade and it blew up in its face.
It’s hardly worthy of note that the previously little-known comic Michelle Wolf’s act was mean-spirited, vulgar, and unfunny as she tore into Sarah Huckabee Sanders and said President Trump loves Nazis. If the comedy at the White House Correspondents Dinner were this biting every year, it might be interesting. But it isn’t. Every year, no matter who holds the White House, the viciousness is trained on the same side. When Republicans are in power, the jokes are aimed at Republicans. When Democrats are in power, the jokes are aimed at Fox News Channel. When Trump is president the barbs are aimed at Trump. When Obama was president, the barbs were aimed at . . . Trump.
The president has done a useful public service in exposing the sham for what it is: one of many opportunities the cultural leadership seizes, in any given year, to wheel the Trojan horse of Democratic-party propaganda into a supposedly politically neutral event. The Oscars and the Emmys and the Grammys and the Golden Globes do the same thing, but viewers have caught on and turned their attention elsewhere.
The average American does not watch the WHCD. (If it were one-tenth as important to the public as it is to the Beltway, it would be broadcast on NBC, not cable news.) But every year at about this time, because of the voluminous media attention, America is made vaguely aware that, by sheer coincidence, at a charity event during which both sides of the aisle put down their partisan banners and break bread together, somehow the Republican reputation has come to acquire a few more dents. Or Democrats have come off looking impossibly witty, cool, and glamorous.
Trump made a virtue out of necessity last year when he broke with precedent and boycotted the event: His hand was forced by the large number of organizations that announced they would not be in attendance, and if he had shown up, the story would have been how sad and joyless the affair was because of the dark pall he was supposedly casting over the country. By making a show of skipping the show, however, Trump exposed the event for what it is. He also partly delegitimized it. If a Republican president of the United States doesn’t feel welcome at a party at which he is traditionally the guest of honor, the event can hardly be nonpartisan.
This year, as Trump made the clever move of going to Washington, Mich., to spend the evening with ordinary Americans, the WHCD looked even more like a hacks’ orgy than usual. The event was such a disaster that even left-leaning Politico unloaded on it: “Being mean isn’t funny. It’s mean,” ran the top line of Sunday’s Politico Playbook newsletter, that fount of conventional wisdom. “Michelle Wolf took it too far,” read the text. “Make fun of someone’s politics. Make fun of their quirks. . . . But there’s no reason to be mean. Mean isn’t funny.” “Bullying is bullying. And it’s wrong. Always,” wrote Chris Cillizza, another conventional-wisdom dispensary, in his CNN column. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times took Sanders’s side, tweeting, “That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.” “Media hands Trump embarrassing win,” said Mike Allen in his Axios newsletter
Trump’s approach to the WHCD is extremely Trumpian: bold, unheard of, seemingly counterproductive. But it worked: He has undermined its foundations. The dinner has become so hateful that even liberal journalists have become uneasy about it. Consider the contrast with George W. Bush: By showing up every year, Bush bestowed legitimacy on the gala. He honored it with his presence, and then he smiled and nodded and absorbed abuse. He played the liberal hacks’ game, on their turf, by their rules, knowing he would lose, and so he did. He lost like a gentleman, and that’s admirable in a way, but he still lost. He lost standing for himself and he lost points for his party.
Trump, by refusing to play the game, has made everyone notice that it’s fixed. Shattering norms and breaking with established precedents isn’t always wise, but whether you attribute it to shrewd instinct or blundering, Trump’s method can be a bracing response to institutions corrupted by their own partisanship. As he did with the Oscars and the National Football League before them, Trump has forced the WHCD to take a deep breath and think about whether it really wants to continue alienating half the country.
No kidding. Same true for the media.
When are they going to slam samantha bee and the late night no talents that haunt my TV for “being mean” and having no class?
The American corporate/political elitist media is so self-focused and self-righteous, they are completely unaware of what they look like from the outside.
Even animals don’t foul their own nests...
I guess libs are lower than animals..
That’s as shocking as the MSM bloodletting over this event.
There were so many mean spirited “jokes”.
One which hasn’t gotten much attention was her saying Fox News is here, ladies cover your drinks.
Is she implying that Fox News people put date rape drugs in drinks, and is this sort of subject really something to joke about in the first place?
Ditto the abortion jokes.
“Bullying is bullying. And it’s wrong. Always.”
They pretend that ridiculing someone’s appearance is worse than calling them “racist”. In America, the former can be shaken off, but the latter destroys livelihoods and social status and endangers life and limb. Labeling someone a “racist” or “sexist” or whatchamaphobic because they don’t agree with you politically is “wrong. Always.”
Sample joke: If a tree in the forest falls on Kellyanne Conway does anyone hear it? No, but nobody cares. Just kidding.
My guess is Sarah Huckabee Sanders realized the video and audio of this vective was political gold and didn't walk out. Sometimes, you draw enemy fire in the hopes of taking the hill. Indeed, just a quick perusal of the handful of things Ms Wolf has done (especially the BBC special "American Autopsy") suggests the WH knew EXACTLY where Ms Wolf's bit would lead.
The Dems aren't sorry for the content. They're sorry they handed the Republicans a Gift. It was a Dem unforced error - a rare thing and as such we are witnessing a rare role-reversal. That is, Republicans often act "above the fray" and fall all over themselves to apologize if a Dem is offended by some comment by someone in the conservative camp. The spineless Republican hope, which never comes to fruition, is Dems play nice, accept their apology and we move on. No....what ALWAYS happens is the Repubs apologize and the Dems have no quarter and turn it up to 11.
The key to success in this saga, is to NOT respond in kind to all the statist/media virtue-signaling. That is, Repubs should soak in all the MSM throwing of Ms Wolf under the bus, and beat the daylights out of the media, Dems with this faux olive branch.
The WH and Deplorables should NOT accept this #FakeApology and instead double-down on pointing out how out-of-touch liberals are with Normal Americans.
What was on display was more than hatred of Trump, it was hatred of each and every individual who voted for him. That's something quite a bit more than merely becoming out of touch. I don't think it was even the message intended, but it shredded the polite masks that used to be donned for the occasion and shone through in all its ugliness. The event is done, killed off by hatred and discourtesy, and no one I know will regret its passing.
Maybe we have seen the last one.........................
>>>One which hasn’t gotten much attention was her saying Fox News is here, ladies cover your drinks<<<
Funny considering Bill Cosby’s Show (where he played an OB/GYN (LOL) who was Married to a Lawyer), was broadcast on NBC, not the Fox Network or Fox News.
“What was on display was more than hatred of Trump, it was hatred of each and every individual who voted for him.”
Money quote! And these are the same people who want us to forfeit our guns; there is a connection.
It’s legitimate for those asshats because President Trump is the primary target.
The big buck Clinton donors are paying prices ranging from $2,500 ("Friend") for cocktail party and dinner, up to $100,000 ("Chair") for "Leadership Reception for two, a premium table of ten, and (Holy Cow) "program recognition as a Gala Chair.
A highlight is that the attendees get "access" to the three Clintons plus engraved invitations to the "Clinton Foundation's Annual Briefing."
Oh joy. I'm just about faint with delight. I guess the Clintons took a poll to make sure they give donors their fondest desires.
Newsworthy is that The Clinton Foundation is down but its not out. It has (cough) streamlined its get-rich-quick mission: "to create economic opportunity, to improve public health, and to inspire civic engagement and service."
Journos might want to checkout how the money-hungry Clinton's monetize the new foundation mission.
Yes...and Yes! Great point! At least 50% of the country gets that, thank God!
Hmm...when 50% of a nation get it, and 50% think they’re wrong, and each side thinks it’s right & can win, the result is often civil war, which is anything but.
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