It is telling that Donald Trump has decided to forego attending the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. Anyone paying attention knows that he has little use or respect for the ‘usual suspects’, meaning the more rabid and biased White House Press Corps. So why would he attend a gala that will be filled with people that have but one mission in life, that being to destroy him by any means necessary?
They have made their disdain and, dare I say, outright hatred of the President well known. They are angry with him because he refuses to acknowledge that they are the self-appointed gatekeepers of news and information from and about the White House and President. That he refuses to call on them during press conferences, preferring to call on reporters from smaller media outlets rather than the purveyors of fake news (like CNN) has pissed them off to no end.
It appears to me that they haven’t realized that their days of being the voice for the people is fading away, something that has been happening for some time and has accelerated since the advent of the Internet. They do not fulfill the position they once did and they are becoming increasingly superfluous, particularly as new media outlets are being used by the President and the White House that bypasses the once-important gatekeepers.
One other thing that has escaped the notice of press corps – Donald Trump is a master when it comes to controlling the message and getting that message out despite a hostile media. He cut his teeth on media manipulation and getting his message out as it was part and parcel of his business success. That he’s turned that acumen into a bludgeon to use against the overtly hostile press shouldn’t surprise anyone…but it has, much to the detriment of that very same hostile press corps.
So it should not be a surprise to anyone that Trump has decided not to attend a dinner held by people who have no love for him. Why waste the time better used for other things?
