Journalism has always been a difficult and often dangerous job. Reporters have to be the smartest people in the room, not to mention the bravest. From Edward R. Murrow dodging the Luftwaffe in 1940 to Daniel Pearl literally losing his head in 2002, journalists have, down through the decades, put their lives on the line to cover stories.
Today, in fact, 10 of them were killed in twin bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan. But the White House Correspondents' Association is worried about its next black-tie dinner.
Clearly — clearly — nothing is more important to these Beltway journos than their outrage at Michelle Wolf, who as we've noted did nothing more horrendous on Saturday night than tell them the truth. Wolf cut so close to the bone that several WHCA member organizations have threatened to pull their support if the comedy routine doesn't go the way of the dinosaur next year.
We cats have long argued that the White House Correspondents' Dinner is a freak event that needs to be put out of its misery. It wasn't because we didn't enjoy the jokes. It was because we hated the sight of the Washington press cozying up to the people they cover. When the WHCA added the red carpets and news organizations invited celebrities, it became even worse. (Let's not forget that it all started with that 1987 invitation to the document-destroying Oliver North acolyte, Fawn Hall.)
The brouhaha over Wolf was ridiculous to begin with, and now looks even more buffoonish after Kabul. So, WHCA, we have a few suggestions: Hold your event if you must. But lose the celebs, the crimson carpet, the self-important umbrage and the badly punctuated tweets (we're looking at you, Andrea Mitchell). Instead, hand out your scholarships and honor your dead. You could fill a whole evening just with tributes to the journalists Vladimir Putin's killed. We cats HISS.
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