Redstate

(They're making it impossible.)

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Liberals — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Bill Keller, chief joker at the New York Times, has confirmed that those in his employer's employ will henceforth not attend those correspondents galas, such as the one at which Karl Rove recently rapped.

They do not want to be seen as hypocrites, attacking President Bush with everything they have in print but nyukking it up during the downtime.

These White House Correspondents dinners are gala charity events where news is made, right? The press gets to write them up, add some addled introspection, and turn it into a celebration of themselves and that living trend, Stephen Colbert, who is always there lurking , at least in spirit.

But this really is a big deal. This is media editorial policy at its sterling finest.

It is all about public image and the need to be taken seriously.

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Okay, 't is some snark, but the world's big thinkers are on this one:

On April 29, [NYT] op-ed columnist Frank Rich harangued the Washington press corps for its prewar reporting and its apparent coziness with Bush administration officials. Roughly 1,100 words into his weekly column, Mr. Rich buried the lead: “After last weekend’s correspondents’ dinner, the Times decided to end its participation in such events.”

[ . . .]
Executive editor Bill Keller, in an e-mail to The Observer, confirmed that the new policy change could extend far outside the beltway: Events that cater to City Hall and Statehouse reporters in New York—the Inner Circle dinner and Legislative Correspondents’ Dinner—are also on the hit list.

He thinks it is the duty of the New York Times to question the determination of governments throughout the world. Saddam had evidently disposed of his WMD without telling anyone or even keeping records that the WMD were gone, and the paper should have known this. They didn't, and Rich imagines that this is because some editors and reporters eat dinner with White House officials in what could be considered to be a charity event.

Not to overemphasize the trivial, though, this also has to do with the discomfort caused by pop music star Sheryl Crow's recent outburst directed at Karl Rove concerning "global warming" at a recent dinner.

But there's this:

Retired Timesman Adam Clymer, who was Washington editor under Mr. [Mike] Oreskes, said he hopes the reform movement doesn’t go too far. Mr. Clymer endorsed the idea of getting out of the correspondents’ dinner—“Mike and I were so repelled by the spectacle of Paula Jones as a guest”—but now helps run the Washington Press Club Foundation dinner.

Admittedly, Paula Jones might not have been the best choice as a serious guest, but what of Sheryl Crow? She's obviously not stable, and she is most certainly not a serious person. And the spectacle of her babbling at Rove about one of the left's false paradigms ought have been plenty embarrassing to any organization with standards or the capacity for shame.

Tim Graham at Media Blog, not only gets the hat tip, he also will be quoted:

If the Times really wants to show its (often ironic) distance from political hackdom, perhaps it should start with a ban on the publisher's floridly ideological commencement speeches — no more Pinch the Pericles Pretender, like the infamous Schmaltz at New Paltz.

He speculates that the White House could also boycott these dinners.

It is Thursday entertainment, and Peter Baker has this thing down:

“It’s great as a spectacle,” said Peter Baker, the White House correspondent for The Washington Post. “Go, don’t go—who cares? I have more of a problem with government institutions holding briefings with 40 reporters on background. That’s what we should take a stand on. I don’t think anybody is compromised by having a drink with a source and listening to bad comedy. All the Sturm und Drang over the dinners is a waste of time.”

Oh, Sturm und Drang. Perhaps he's thinking of Haydn's String Quartet No.23 in F minor or Gluck's Don Juan. Nah, that stuff has nothing to do with Paula Jones or Sheryl Crow. Or drinking with sources while listening to bad comedy. Or Frank Rich's latest hallucinations.