Sunday, May 11, 2014
The US President kept his tryst with history and democracy on May 3rd. He was the Chief Guest at the centennial dinner by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) that was organized in the capital’s Hilton Hotel’s ballroom with 2,600 guests attending. The dinner has become an annual dinner that brings Washington’s political and social elite with those from Hollywood; a “Washington meets Hollywood” event. However more importantly, in participating in the event, the President willingly subjects himself to a “roast” by a stand-in-comedian while he himself gets to “roast” his political opponents; the media and also himself and his own administration. The “roast” is something exceptional to the United States. It is “an event in which an individual is subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise, outlandish true and untrue stories, and heart-warming tributes as a mock counter to a toast.”
The annual event has long become a major item in Washington’s political/social calendar. The event is telecast live in prime time and has a national following comparable to the top media events of the unbelievably competitive media world in the United States. What is more important about this event is that it brings to focus the strength of democracy in the United States where for an evening over dinner, the President sits with his guests over the dinner but in reality before the entire country and the world and together, spends an evening making fun of politics and politicians not necessarily restricted to the United States! In this year’s event, the Russian President Putin was given special attention.
The WHCA annual dinner in its present form is held with the President as the Chief Guest although in the past, the annual dinners were also held without the President in attendance. These days, it allows the President a good part of the evening’s real time to get back at those who had criticised him all the year including the media itself, but only in the style of comedy. The President gets the first dig but it is a performance that requires high speaking skills and intellect and helps in the healthy growth of democracy and democratic traditions. The President does not even spare his own serious political failures for a laugh. President Obama, while acting out his role as the nation’s comedian-in-chief this year, said that he had prepared a video to thank the WHCA for its excellent work. That video choked and froze and the President yelled for help to fix the video. Kathleen Sebellius, the former Health and Human services Secretary came to the President’s rescue! She had only recently resigned from her position after taking responsibility for the glitches in Obamacare website.
The stand-in comedian to take digs at the President is chosen carefully. Most of the top stand-in-comedians of the country has been invited to the WHCA’s annual dinner. The stand-in-comedian is expected to be “a verbal hit man imported from out of town to blast away at every pomposity inside the Beltway (in Washington) that can be readily seen from elsewhere.” This year’s stand-in-comedian was Joel McHale, the star of NBC’s show “Community”. He is given as much time as the President and the same freedom to “roast” the President and everyone else in the country but all in the spirit of fun and intellectual comedy. Nevertheless, some stand-in-comedians have caused controversy by their digs. The WHCA Annual dinner hit the national news headlines in 2006 when that year Steven Colbert’s dig at President George Bush had become a “media and internet sensation”. The conservative US media carried out a “cover-up” in reporting the event. Nevertheless, Stephen Colbert’s performance made the event more popular and the WHCA has not imposed any restriction on the stand-in-comedian’s choice of individuals or institutions for his digs.
The WHCA today has become a part of the White House and occupies physical presence in the West Wing of the world famous building. There is a legend that says that in 1900, President Roosevelt had watched from his office, correspondents drenching in rain outside the gates of the White House and had taken pity on them and had given them space inside the White House. However, serious research to the WHCA’s beginning has dismissed this legend. Instead, the real history is a much more laboured effort of the early pioneers who “worked its way up from huddling over one small table in the mansion to occupying a full press room in the West Wing. There was a time when blacks were not allowed to be a member of the WHCA. In 1944, a brilliant black journalist Harry S McAlpin was excluded from covering presidential news conferences. This year at the WHCA dinner, the Association announced establishment of a scholarship in his name and his son was invited to receive the honour. Yet his story remains as a black spot on WHCA. Harry McAlpin left journalism in 1945 to practice law. Even after President FDR had permitted him to cover his conferences, the WHCA did not recognise him till his death in 1985. It needed a black President to bring that dark chapter in WHCA history to a close at this year’s dinner.
The WHCA’s annual dinner has today emerged as an institution and underlines the strength and importance of the media in US democracy and the positive and healthy relationship between the government and the “Fourth Estate.” Membership is open to any correspondent who is an editorial staff of a newspaper, magazine, and wire service, TV/radio whose principal responsibility is to report on the White House. The members elect a nine-member board of directors that ‘addresses access to the chief executive; coverage arrangements; work space arrangements; logistics and costs for press travel to accompany a president on the road. “WHCA works independent of the White House and there is no influence from the administration on deciding upon the membership of the WHCA and in determining the parameters of their duties and responsibilities. A healthy relationship has evolved between the White House and the WHCA and the annual dinner and the fun and frolic that goes with it underlines the nature and depth of that healthy relationship.
The WHCA is responsible for the transparency that one witnesses in the way the US administration works. The WHCA could be a model for any administration that is committed to transparency on how its executive branch works. US politics has a dark side where the political parties openly fight in as mean a manner as in countries where democracy is far from perfect. The media in USA is also divided in the way it is in imperfect democracies. However, due to the way the WHCA/White House Press Wing have developed their relationship, those who represent papers/TV stations/radio critical to the administration and those who support it are treated in the same way. Thus, the administration has to wait for WHCA’s annual dinner to take digs at the WHCA members that represent newspapers/TV stations etc opposed to it as the President did this year on Fox and CNN. Otherwise, the relationship between the administration and the WHCA is healthy and proactive.
The WHCA uses the annual dinner to raise money for scholarships and awards that recognize aspiring and established journalists. The awards that WHCA gave out this year were the Aldo Beckman Memorial award; Merriman Smith Memorial Award; Edgar A. Poe award. A new award, the Presidential Award was created this year. We rightly criticize many aspects of politics in the USA but a study of the WHCA and particularly its annual dinner would tell us how far we are from transparency in the way our executive works. Such a study would also show us the way we would need to proceed if we wanted to bring transparency in the work of our executive branch.
The writer is a retired career Ambassador. He can be reached at: HYPERLINK "mailto:ambserajulislam@gmail.com"
he
US President kept his tryst with history and democracy on May 3rd. He
was the Chief Guest at the centennial dinner by the White House
Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) that was organised in the capital’s
Hilton Hotel’s ballroom with 2,600 guests attending. The dinner has
become an annual dinner that brings Washington’s political and social
elite with those from Hollywood; a “Washington meets Hollywood” event.
However more importantly, in participating in the event, the President
willingly subjects himself to a “roast” by a stand-in-comedian while he
himself gets to “roast” his political opponents; the media and also
himself and his own administration. The “roast” is something exceptional
to the United States. It is “an event in which an individual is
subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise,
outlandish true and untrue stories, and heart-warming tributes as a mock
counter to a toast.”
The annual event has long become a major item in Washington’s political/social calendar. The event is telecast live in prime time and has a national following comparable to the top media events of the unbelievably competitive media world in the United States. What is more important about this event is that it brings to focus the strength of democracy in the United States where for an evening over dinner, the President sits with his guests over the dinner but in reality before the entire country and the world and together, spends an evening making fun of politics and politicians not necessarily restricted to the United States! In this year’s event, the Russian President Putin was given special attention.
The WHCA annual dinner in its present form is held with the President as the Chief Guest although in the past, the annual dinners were also held without the President in attendance. These days, it allows the President a good part of the evening’s real time to get back at those who had criticised him all the year including the media itself, but only in the style of comedy. The President gets the first dig but it is a performance that requires high speaking skills and intellect and helps in the healthy growth of democracy and democratic traditions. The President does not even spare his own serious political failures for a laugh. President Obama, while acting out his role as the nation’s comedian-in-chief this year, said that he had prepared a video to thank the WHCA for its excellent work. That video choked and froze and the President yelled for help to fix the video. Kathleen Sebellius, the former Health and Human services Secretary came to the President’s rescue! She had only recently resigned from her position after taking responsibility for the glitches in Obamacare website.
The stand-in comedian to take digs at the President is chosen carefully. Most of the top stand-in-comedians of the country has been invited to the WHCA’s annual dinner. The stand-in-comedian is expected to be “a verbal hit man imported from out of town to blast away at every pomposity inside the Beltway (in Washington) that can be readily seen from elsewhere.” This year’s stand-in-comedian was Joel McHale, the star of NBC’s show “Community”. He is given as much time as the President and the same freedom to “roast” the President and everyone else in the country but all in the spirit of fun and intellectual comedy. Nevertheless, some stand-in-comedians have caused controversy by their digs. The WHCA Annual dinner hit the national news headlines in 2006 when that year Steven Colbert’s dig at President George Bush had become a “media and internet sensation”. The conservative US media carried out a “cover-up” in reporting the event. Nevertheless, Stephen Colbert’s performance made the event more popular and the WHCA has not imposed any restriction on the stand-in-comedian’s choice of individuals or institutions for his digs.
The WHCA today has become a part of the White House and occupies physical presence in the West Wing of the world famous building. There is a legend that says that in 1900, President Roosevelt had watched from his office, correspondents drenching in rain outside the gates of the White House and had taken pity on them and had given them space inside the White House. However, serious research to the WHCA’s beginning has dismissed this legend. Instead, the real history is a much more laboured effort of the early pioneers who “worked its way up from huddling over one small table in the mansion to occupying a full press room in the West Wing. There was a time when blacks were not allowed to be a member of the WHCA. In 1944, a brilliant black journalist Harry S McAlpin was excluded from covering presidential news conferences. This year at the WHCA dinner, the Association announced establishment of a scholarship in his name and his son was invited to receive the honour. Yet his story remains as a black spot on WHCA. Harry McAlpin left journalism in 1945 to practice law. Even after President FDR had permitted him to cover his conferences, the WHCA did not recognise him till his death in 1985. It needed a black President to bring that dark chapter in WHCA history to a close at this year’s dinner.
The WHCA’s annual dinner has today emerged as an institution and underlines the strength and importance of the media in US democracy and the positive and healthy relationship between the government and the “Fourth Estate.” Membership is open to any correspondent who is an editorial staff of a newspaper, magazine, and wire service, TV/radio whose principal responsibility is to report on the White House. The members elect a nine-member board of directors that ‘addresses access to the chief executive; coverage arrangements; work space arrangements; logistics and costs for press travel to accompany a president on the road. “WHCA works independent of the White House and there is no influence from the administration on deciding upon the membership of the WHCA and in determining the parameters of their duties and responsibilities. A healthy relationship has evolved between the White House and the WHCA and the annual dinner and the fun and frolic that goes with it underlines the nature and depth of that healthy relationship.
The WHCA is responsible for the transparency that one witnesses in the way the US administration works. The WHCA could be a model for any administration that is committed to transparency on how its executive branch works. US politics has a dark side where the political parties openly fight in as mean a manner as in countries where democracy is far from perfect. The media in USA is also divided in the way it is in imperfect democracies. However, due to the way the WHCA/White House Press Wing have developed their relationship, those who represent papers/TV stations/radio critical to the administration and those who support it are treated in the same way. Thus, the administration has to wait for WHCA’s annual dinner to take digs at the WHCA members that represent newspapers/TV stations etc opposed to it as the President did this year on Fox and CNN. Otherwise, the relationship between the administration and the WHCA is healthy and proactive.
The WHCA uses the annual dinner to raise money for scholarships and awards that recognise aspiring and established journalists. The awards that WHCA gave out this year were the Aldo Beckman Memorial award; Merriman Smith Memorial Award; Edgar A. Poe award. A new award, the Presidential Award was created this year. We rightly criticise many aspects of politics in the USA but a study of the WHCA and particularly its annual dinner would tell us how far we are from transparency in the way our executive works. Such a study would also show us the way we would need to proceed if we wanted to bring transparency in the work of our executive branch.
The writer is a retired career Ambassador. He can be reached at: HYPERLINK "mailto:ambserajulislam@gmail.com" ambserajulislam@gmail.com - See more at: http://www.daily-sun.com/details_yes_11-05-2014_WHCA,-democracy-and-transparency-in-USA_851_2_5_1_1.html#sthash.M8dqqrKt.dpuf
The annual event has long become a major item in Washington’s political/social calendar. The event is telecast live in prime time and has a national following comparable to the top media events of the unbelievably competitive media world in the United States. What is more important about this event is that it brings to focus the strength of democracy in the United States where for an evening over dinner, the President sits with his guests over the dinner but in reality before the entire country and the world and together, spends an evening making fun of politics and politicians not necessarily restricted to the United States! In this year’s event, the Russian President Putin was given special attention.
The WHCA annual dinner in its present form is held with the President as the Chief Guest although in the past, the annual dinners were also held without the President in attendance. These days, it allows the President a good part of the evening’s real time to get back at those who had criticised him all the year including the media itself, but only in the style of comedy. The President gets the first dig but it is a performance that requires high speaking skills and intellect and helps in the healthy growth of democracy and democratic traditions. The President does not even spare his own serious political failures for a laugh. President Obama, while acting out his role as the nation’s comedian-in-chief this year, said that he had prepared a video to thank the WHCA for its excellent work. That video choked and froze and the President yelled for help to fix the video. Kathleen Sebellius, the former Health and Human services Secretary came to the President’s rescue! She had only recently resigned from her position after taking responsibility for the glitches in Obamacare website.
The stand-in comedian to take digs at the President is chosen carefully. Most of the top stand-in-comedians of the country has been invited to the WHCA’s annual dinner. The stand-in-comedian is expected to be “a verbal hit man imported from out of town to blast away at every pomposity inside the Beltway (in Washington) that can be readily seen from elsewhere.” This year’s stand-in-comedian was Joel McHale, the star of NBC’s show “Community”. He is given as much time as the President and the same freedom to “roast” the President and everyone else in the country but all in the spirit of fun and intellectual comedy. Nevertheless, some stand-in-comedians have caused controversy by their digs. The WHCA Annual dinner hit the national news headlines in 2006 when that year Steven Colbert’s dig at President George Bush had become a “media and internet sensation”. The conservative US media carried out a “cover-up” in reporting the event. Nevertheless, Stephen Colbert’s performance made the event more popular and the WHCA has not imposed any restriction on the stand-in-comedian’s choice of individuals or institutions for his digs.
The WHCA today has become a part of the White House and occupies physical presence in the West Wing of the world famous building. There is a legend that says that in 1900, President Roosevelt had watched from his office, correspondents drenching in rain outside the gates of the White House and had taken pity on them and had given them space inside the White House. However, serious research to the WHCA’s beginning has dismissed this legend. Instead, the real history is a much more laboured effort of the early pioneers who “worked its way up from huddling over one small table in the mansion to occupying a full press room in the West Wing. There was a time when blacks were not allowed to be a member of the WHCA. In 1944, a brilliant black journalist Harry S McAlpin was excluded from covering presidential news conferences. This year at the WHCA dinner, the Association announced establishment of a scholarship in his name and his son was invited to receive the honour. Yet his story remains as a black spot on WHCA. Harry McAlpin left journalism in 1945 to practice law. Even after President FDR had permitted him to cover his conferences, the WHCA did not recognise him till his death in 1985. It needed a black President to bring that dark chapter in WHCA history to a close at this year’s dinner.
The WHCA’s annual dinner has today emerged as an institution and underlines the strength and importance of the media in US democracy and the positive and healthy relationship between the government and the “Fourth Estate.” Membership is open to any correspondent who is an editorial staff of a newspaper, magazine, and wire service, TV/radio whose principal responsibility is to report on the White House. The members elect a nine-member board of directors that ‘addresses access to the chief executive; coverage arrangements; work space arrangements; logistics and costs for press travel to accompany a president on the road. “WHCA works independent of the White House and there is no influence from the administration on deciding upon the membership of the WHCA and in determining the parameters of their duties and responsibilities. A healthy relationship has evolved between the White House and the WHCA and the annual dinner and the fun and frolic that goes with it underlines the nature and depth of that healthy relationship.
The WHCA is responsible for the transparency that one witnesses in the way the US administration works. The WHCA could be a model for any administration that is committed to transparency on how its executive branch works. US politics has a dark side where the political parties openly fight in as mean a manner as in countries where democracy is far from perfect. The media in USA is also divided in the way it is in imperfect democracies. However, due to the way the WHCA/White House Press Wing have developed their relationship, those who represent papers/TV stations/radio critical to the administration and those who support it are treated in the same way. Thus, the administration has to wait for WHCA’s annual dinner to take digs at the WHCA members that represent newspapers/TV stations etc opposed to it as the President did this year on Fox and CNN. Otherwise, the relationship between the administration and the WHCA is healthy and proactive.
The WHCA uses the annual dinner to raise money for scholarships and awards that recognise aspiring and established journalists. The awards that WHCA gave out this year were the Aldo Beckman Memorial award; Merriman Smith Memorial Award; Edgar A. Poe award. A new award, the Presidential Award was created this year. We rightly criticise many aspects of politics in the USA but a study of the WHCA and particularly its annual dinner would tell us how far we are from transparency in the way our executive works. Such a study would also show us the way we would need to proceed if we wanted to bring transparency in the work of our executive branch.
The writer is a retired career Ambassador. He can be reached at: HYPERLINK "mailto:ambserajulislam@gmail.com" ambserajulislam@gmail.com - See more at: http://www.daily-sun.com/details_yes_11-05-2014_WHCA,-democracy-and-transparency-in-USA_851_2_5_1_1.html#sthash.M8dqqrKt.dpuf
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