White House Correspondents' Association
The White House Correspondents' Association is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor that a United States congressional committee would select which journalists could attend press conferences of President Woodrow Wilson.
The WHCA operates independently of the White House. Among the more notable issues handled by the WHCA are the credentialing process, access to the president and physical conditions in the White House press briefing rooms. Its most high-profile activity is the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, which is traditionally attended by the president and covered by the news media.
Association leadership, 2018–2019
The current leadership of the White House Correspondents' Association includes:- Officers
- * President: Jonathan Karl, ABC News
- * Vice President: Zeke Miller, Associated Press
- * Secretary: Todd Gillman, Dallas Morning News
- * Treasurer: Doug Mills, The New York Times
- Board members
- * Steven Portnoy, CBS News Radio
- * Tamara Keith, NPR
- * Fin Gomez, CBS News
- * Francesca Chambers, Daily Mail
- *Anita Kumar, Politico
- Executive Director
- * Steven Thomma
Table of association presidents
| Year | Name | Employer |
| William Wallace Price | The Washington Star | |
| Frank R. Lamb | The Washington Star | |
| J. Russell Young | The Washington Star | |
| E. Ross Bartley | Associated Press | |
| Isaac Gregg | The Sun | |
| George E. Durno | International News Service | |
| John Edwin Nevin | The Washington Post | |
| John T. Lambert | Universal Service | |
| J. Russell Young | The Washington Star | |
| Wilbur Forrest | New York Herald Tribune | |
| Lewis Wood | The New York Times | |
| Paul R. Mallon | syndicated columnist | |
| George E. Durno | International News Service | |
| Francis M. Stephenson | Associated Press | |
| Albert J. Warner | New York Herald Tribune | |
| Frederick J. Storm | United Press Associations | |
| Walter J. Trohan | Chicago Tribune | |
| Earl Godwin | The Washington Times | |
| Felix Belair Jr. | The New York Times | |
| Thomas F. Reynolds | United Press Associations | |
| John C. O'Brien | The Philadelphia Inquirer | |
| John C. Henry | The Washington Star | |
| Douglas B. Cornell | Associated Press | |
| Paul Wooten | The Times-Picayune | |
| Merriman Smith | United Press Associations | |
| Edward T. Folliard | The Washington Post | |
| Felix Belair Jr. | The New York Times | |
| Ernest B. Vaccaro | Associated Press | |
| Robert G. Nixon | International News Service | |
| Carlton Kent | Chicago Sun-Times | |
| Robert J. Donovan | New York Herald Tribune | |
| Anthony H. Leviero | The New York Times | |
| Laurence H. Burd | Chicago Tribune | |
| Francis M. Stephenson | Daily News | |
| Marvin Arrowsmith | Associated Press | |
| Garnett D. Horner | The Washington Star | |
| William H.Y. Knighton Jr. | The Baltimore Sun | |
| Robert Roth | Philadelphia Bulletin | |
| Merriman Smith | United Press International | |
| Alan L. Otten | The Wall Street Journal | |
| Robert E. Thompson | Hearst Newspapers | |
| Frank Cormier | Associated Press | |
| Carroll Kilpatrick | The Washington Post | |
| Charles W. Bailey II | Minneapolis Tribune | |
| Peter Lisagor | Chicago Daily News | |
| John P. Sutherland | U.S. News & World Report | |
| Edgar A. Poe | The Times-Picayune | |
| Ted Knap | Scripps Howard Newspapers |
| Year | Name | Employer |
| James Deakin | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | |
| Helen Thomas | United Press International | |
| Lawrence M. O'Rourke | Philadelphia Bulletin | |
| Paul F. Healy | Daily News | |
| Aldo Beckman | Chicago Tribune | |
| Ralph Harris | Reuters | |
| Robert C. Pierpoint | CBS News | |
| Clifford Evans | RKO General Broadcasting | |
| Thomas M. DeFrank | Newsweek | |
| James R. Gerstenzang | Associated Press | |
| Sara Fritz | Los Angeles Times | |
| Gary F. Schuster | CBS News | |
| Bill Plante | CBS News | |
| Norman D. Sandler | United Press International | |
| Jeremiah O'Leary | The Washington Times | |
| Johanna Neuman | USA Today | |
| Robert M. Ellison | Sheridan Broadcasting | |
| Charles Bierbauer | CNN | |
| Karen Hosler | The Baltimore Sun | |
| George E. Condon Jr. | Copley News Service | |
| Kenneth T. Walsh | U.S. News & World Report | |
| Carl P. Leubsdorf | The Dallas Morning News | |
| Terence Hunt | Associated Press | |
| Laurence McQuillan | Reuters | |
| Stewart Powell | Hearst Newspapers | |
| Susan Page | USA Today | |
| Arlene Dillon | CBS News | |
| Steve Holland | Reuters | |
| Bob Deans | Cox Newspapers | |
| Carl Cannon | National Journal | |
| Ron Hutcheson | Knight Ridder | |
| Mark Smith | Associated Press TV and Radio | |
| Steve Scully | C-SPAN | |
| Ann Compton | ABC News | |
| Jennifer Loven | Associated Press | |
| Edwin Chen | Bloomberg | |
| David Jackson | USA Today | |
| Caren Bohan | Reuters | |
| Ed Henry | Fox News | |
| Steven Thomma | McClatchy | |
| Christi Parsons | Tribune Media | |
| Carol Lee | Wall Street Journal | |
| Jeff Mason | Reuters | |
| Margaret Talev | Bloomberg | |
| Olivier Knox | Sirius XM | |
| Jonathan Karl | ABC News | |
| Zeke Miller ' | Associated Press | |
| Steven Portnoy ' | CBS News Radio |
White House press room
The WHCA is responsible for assigned seating in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House.White House Correspondents' Dinner
The WHCA's annual dinner, begun in 1921, has become a Washington, D.C., tradition, and is traditionally attended by the president and vice president. Fifteen presidents have attended at least one WHCA dinner, beginning with Calvin Coolidge in 1924. The dinner is traditionally held on the evening of the last Saturday in April at the Washington Hilton.Until 1962, the dinner was open only to men, even though WHCA's membership included women. At the urging of Helen Thomas, President John F. Kennedy refused to attend the dinner unless the ban on women was dropped.
Prior to World War II, the annual dinner featured singing between courses, a homemade movie, and an hour-long, post-dinner show with big-name performers. Since 1983, the featured speaker has usually been a comedian, with the dinner taking on the form of a 'roast' of the president and his administration.
The dinner also funds scholarships for gifted students in college journalism programs.
Many annual dinners have been cancelled or downsized due to deaths or political crises. The dinner was cancelled in 1930 due to the death of former president William Howard Taft; in 1942, following the United States' entry into World War II; and in 1951, over what President Harry S. Truman called the "uncertainty of the world situation". In 1981, Ronald Reagan did not attend because he was recuperating after the attempted assassination the previous month, but he did phone in and told a joke about the shooting.
President Donald Trump did not attend the dinners in 2017 and 2018, but indicated in a tweet that he might attend in 2019 since this dinner did not feature a comedian as the featured speaker. However, on April 5, 2019, he announced that he again would not attend, calling the dinner "so boring, and so negative," instead hosting a political rally that evening in Wisconsin. On April 22, Trump ordered a boycott of the dinner, with White House Cabinet secretary Bill McGinley, who oversees the cabinet agencies for the president, assembling the agencies' chiefs of staff to issue a directive that members of the administration not attend. However, some members of the administration attended pre- and post- dinner parties.
Dinner criticisms
The WHCD has been increasingly criticized as an example of the coziness between the White House press corps and the administration. The dinner has typically included a skit, either live or videotaped, by the sitting U.S. president in which he mocks himself, for the amusement of the press corps. The press corps, in turn, hobnobs with administration officials, even those who are unpopular and are not regularly cooperative with the press. Increasing scrutiny by bloggers has contributed to added public focus on this friendliness.After the 2007 dinner, New York Times columnist Frank Rich implied that the Times would no longer participate in the dinners. Rich wrote that the dinner had become "a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era" because it "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows".
Other criticism has focused on the amount of money actually raised for scholarships, which has decreased over the past few years.
The dinners have drawn increasing public attention, and the guest list grows "more Hollywood". The attention given to the guest list and entertainers often overshadows the intended purpose of the dinner, which is to "acknowledge award-winners, present scholarships, and give the press and the president an evening of friendly appreciation". This has led to an atmosphere of coming to the event only to "see and be seen". This usually takes place at pre-dinner receptions and post-dinner parties hosted by various media organizations, which are often a bigger draw and can be more exclusive than the dinners themselves.
The public airings of the controversies around the dinner from the mid-2000s onward gradually focused concern about the nature of the event. While interest in the event from entertainers, journalists, and political figures was high during the Obama administration, by the period of the Trump administration, interest gradually slowed in attending, especially for Hollywood figures who did not want to be caught on-camera during a potential viral moment gone bad or to spend extended amounts of time with Trump administration officials. Business related to the weekend event slowed considerably, including at hotels, high-end restaurants, salons, caterers, and limo companies.
During the Trump administration, some media companies stopped hosting parties, while other of the roughly 25 events held during the three-day period gained more prominence as signs of social status.
By 2019, the dinner and associated parties had returned somewhat to their previous nature as networking and media functions, with packed houses of media industry employees and Washington political figures.
List of dinners
Gallery
Awards
The Merriman Smith Memorial Award
Awarded for outstanding examples of deadline reporting.| Year | Recipient | Distinction | Employer | Article / Show | Notes & Ref |
| 2000 | Gary Nurenberg | Broadcast | KTLA-Tribune Broadcasting | ||
| 2000 | Jodi Enda | Knight-Ridder Newspapers | |||
| 2001 | Jim Angle | Broadcast | Fox News Channel | ||
| 2001 | Sandra Sobieraj | Associated Press | |||
| 2002 | Peter Maer | Broadcast | CBS News | ||
| 2002 | Ron Fournier | Associated Press | |||
| 2003 | Jim Angle | Broadcast | Fox News Channel | ||
| 2003 | David Sanger | The New York Times | |||
| 2004 | Mike Allen | The Washington Post | |||
| 2005 | Ron Fournier | Associated Press | |||
| 2005 | Jackie Calmes | The Wall Street Journal | Honorable Mention | ||
| 2006 | Terry Moran | Broadcast | ABC News | ||
| 2006 | Deb Riechmann | Associated Press | |||
| 2007 | Martha Raddatz | Broadcast | ABC News | ||
| 2007 | David Sanger | The New York Times | |||
| 2008 | Ed Henry | Broadcast | CNN | ||
| 2008 | Deb Riechmann | Associated Press | |||
| 2009 | David Greene | Broadcast | NPR | ||
| 2009 | Sandra Sobieraj Westfall | People magazine | |||
| 2010 | Jake Tapper | Broadcast | ABC News | ||
| 2010 | Ben Feller | Associated Press | |||
| 2011 | Jake Tapper | Broadcast | ABC News | ||
| 2011 | Dan Balz | The Washington Post | |||
| 2012 | Jake Tapper | Broadcast | ABC News | ||
| 2012 | Glenn Thrush, Carrie Budoff Brown, Manu Raju and John Bresnahan | Politico | "Excellence in presidential coverage under pressure" | ||
| 2013 | Terry Morgan | Broadcast | ABC News | ||
| 2013 | Julie Pace | Associated Press | |||
| 2014 | Peter Maer | Broadcast | CBS News | "Sequestration" | |
| 2014 | Peter Baker | The New York Times | "Obama Seeks Approval by Congress for Strike in Syria" | ||
| 2015 | Jim Avila | Broadcast | ABC News | Cuba/Alan Gross | |
| 2015 | Josh Lederman | Associated Press | Fence Jumper | ||
| 2016 | Norah O'Donnell | Broadcast | CBS News | ||
| 2016 | Matt Viser | The Boston Globe | |||
| 2017 | Edward-Isaac Dovere | Politico | "How Obama set a trap for Raul Castro" | ||
| 2018 | Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein | Broadcast | CNN | ||
| 2018 | Josh Dawsey | Politico | - | ||
| 2019 | Ed Henry | Broadcast | Fox News | ||
| 2019 | Josh Dawsey | Washington Post |
The Aldo Beckman Memorial Award
Awarded for journalistic excellence.| Year | Recipient | Employer | Ref |
| 2000 | Jeanne Cummings | The Wall Street Journal | |
| 2001 | Steve Thomma | Knight Ridder | |
| 2002 | Anne E. Kornblut | The Boston Globe | |
| 2003 | Dana Milbank | The Washington Post | |
| 2004 | David Sanger | The New York Times | |
| 2005 | Susan Page | USA Today | |
| 2006 | Carl Cannon | National Journal | |
| 2007 | Kenneth T. Walsh | U.S. News & World Report | |
| 2008 | Alexis Simendinger | National Journal | |
| 2009 | Michael Abramowitz | The Washington Post | |
| 2010 | Mark Knoller | CBS News | |
| 2011 | Peter Baker | The New York Times | |
| 2012 | Scott Wilson | The Washington Post | |
| 2013 | Ryan Lizza | The New Yorker | |
| 2014 | Glenn Thrush | Politico | |
| 2014 | Brianna Keilar | CNN | |
| 2015 | Peter Baker | The New York Times | |
| 2016 | Carol Lee | The Wall Street Journal | |
| 2017 | Greg Jaffe | The Washington Post | |
| 2018 | Maggie Haberman | The New York Times |
The Edgar A. Poe Memorial Award
Awarded for excellence on a story of national or regional significance.| Year | Recipient | Employer | Notes & Ref | |
| 2000 | Sam Roe | The Toledo Blade | ||
| 2001 | Elizabeth Marchak, Dave Davis, and Joan Mazzolini | The Plain Dealer | ||
| 2001 | John Barry and Evan Thomas | Newsweek | Honorable Mention | |
| 2001 | David Pace | Associated Press | Honorable Mention | |
| 2002 | Evan Thomas, Mark Hosenball, Martha Brant, and Roy Gutman | Newsweek | ||
| 2002 | Staff | The Seattle Times | Honorable Mention | |
| 2002 | Staff | The Dayton Daily News | Honorable Mention | |
| 2003 | Sean Naylor | Army Times | ||
| 2003 | Staff | South Florida Sun-Sentinel | Honorable Mention | |
| 2003 | Michael Berens | Chicago Tribune | Honorable Mention | |
| 2004 | Russell Corollo and Mei-ling Hopgood | Dayton Daily News | ||
| 2004 | Christopher H. Schmitt and Edward T. Pound | U.S. News & World Report | Honorable Mention | |
| 2004 | Michael Hudson | Southern Exposure magazine | Honorable Mention | |
| 2004 | Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landy | Knight Ridder | Honorable Mention | |
| 2004 | Rod Nordland and Michael Hirsh | Newsweek | Honorable Mention | |
| 2004 | Sami Yousafzai, Ron Moreau, and Michael Hirsh | Newsweek | Honorable Mention | |
| 2004 | Fareed Zakaria | Newsweek | Honorable Mention | |
| 2005 | Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams | The San Francisco Chronicle | ||
| 2005 | Donald Barlett and James Steele | Time magazine | Honorable Mention | |
| 2006 | Marcus Stern and Jerry Kammer | Copley News Service | ||
| 2006 | Staff | Time magazine | Honorable Mention | |
| 2006 | Russell Carollo and Larry Kaplow | Dayton Daily News | Honorable Mention | |
| 2007 | Joan Ryan | The San Francisco Chronicle | ||
| 2008 | Paul Shukovsky, Tracy Johnson, and Daniel Lathrop | Seattle Post-Intelligencer | ||
| 2009 | Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong | The Seattle Times | ||
| 2010 | Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman | Contra Costa Times, California | ||
| 2011 | Michael Berens | The Seattle Times | ||
| 2012 | Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan | Associated Press | ||
| 2013 | Jim Morris, Chris Hamby, Ronnie Greene | The Center for Public Integrity | Hard Labor | |
| 2014 | Megan Twohey | Reuters | "The Child Exchange: Inside America's Underground Market for Adopted Children," | |
| 2014 | Chris Hamby, Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross | The Center for Public Integrity and ABC News | "Breathless and Burdened: Dying from black lung, buried by law and medicine," | |
| 2015 | Gary Fields, John R. Emshwiller, Rob Barry and Coulter Jones | Wall Street Journal | "America's Rap Sheet" | |
| 2015 | Carol A. Leonnig | The Washington Post | "Secret Service" | |
| 2016 | Neela Banerjee, John Cushman Jr., David Hasemyer and Lisa Song | InsideClimate News | ||
| 2016 | Terrence McCoy | The Washington Post | ||
| 2017 | David Fahrenthold | The Washington Post | ||
| 2018 | Jason Szep, Peter Eisler, Tim Reid, Lisa Girion, Grant Smith and team | Reuters | "Shock Tactics" | |
| 2018 | Norah O'Donnell | CBS This Morning | Sexual Assault in the Air Force Academy | Honorable Mention |
| 2018 | Dan Diamond and Rachana Pradhan | Politico | Tom Price's Private Jet Travel | Honorable Mention |