Stenographers Dinner To Be Held Tonight

Tonight, the White House Stenographers Association will host the lying and historically corrupt Malignant Fascist for their annual dinner, which is a self-congratulatory event with corporate media bosses, and celebrities from the entertainment world.  In his year-and-a-half back in the White House, the MF has pursued the press through threats by his FCC, extortion of payments for alleged "bias" (ABC, CBS), and lately subpoenaing reporters for their story about the MF's "Bribe Force One" jet's security inadequacies.  From Tom Jones at journalism watchdog Poynter.50:

"Friday’s dinner won’t be the big, swanky affair the traditional dinner usually is, yet it still has a chance to devolve into a big embarrassment because of one man:

President Donald Trump.

Trump is expected to talk and, given his history, he’s likely to spend his time mocking and criticizing the press instead of offering a few polite jokes and celebrating the importance of the First Amendment and the role of the press in a free democracy. Care to bet that he’ll use phrases such as “fake news” and “lame-stream media” while whining about how mistreated he is?

Trump is not self-aware. He never shows an ounce of self-deprecation. He rarely even shows that he has a sense of humor. And he certainly seems incapable of playfully jabbing the press with a few harmless jokes. He’s more of a sledgehammer speaker, interested not in laughs but in insults." (our emphasis)

Some journalists are objecting to the spectacle of someone like the MF who despises a free press and engages in vindictiveness toward reporters and organizations critical of him. 

"Even before the first dinner back in April, a group of 500 retired and former journalists sent a letter to the WHCA, asking them to stand up to the Trump administration’s attacks on reporters and press freedoms.

Now, in a new letter, the group is renewing its call.

The updated letter says, 'Since that evening, the administration’s attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious. The President’s Department of Justice has subpoenaed journalists and their phone records. President Trump has threatened to revoke licenses of broadcasters who refuse to acquiesce to his demands.'”  (our emphasis)

Sadly for the First Amendment, the clown show will go on with the stenographers pretending everything is normal and that they don't fear an unstable, vindictive MF going after them and their employers.  They'll take it in the rear end from him with frozen smiles, because to them access is everything.  Everything.