
The White House Correspondents’ Association is postponing its giant dinner scheduled for late April, but still hopes to hold the annual event this summer or fall if the coronavirus threat abates.

Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured Saturday Night Live cast member, will serve as MC of this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the annual media jamboree that has become a flash point on free expression in the Trump era. The dinner, to be held April 25, is also set to feature a repeat performance by Hasan Minhaj, the former Daily Host personality and current host of Patriot Act on Netflix. Minhaj was the featured entertainer at the 2017 edition of the event.

The White House Correspondents’ Association typically keeps a low profile in its discussions with the White House press secretary over issues involving the news media. It tends not to wade into controversy, at least not in public. But faced with the president’s continued hostility and confronted by false official statements, the two candidates vying to become president of the group want to take a bolder — and more confrontational — approach.

Ron Chernow reminds the crowd at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that even Washington fumed about journalists. In choosing a scholar over a satirist, the Correspondents’ Association had sought to solemnize a dinner known for its comedic puncturing of the Washington bubble.
The president of the White House Correspondents Association, Jeff Mason of Reuters, met with Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, on Thursday to discuss the issue to no avail.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel is going to be cracking jokes for the president. The White House Correspondents’ Association says the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host will be the featured comedian at its 98th annual dinner next year. Association president Caren Bohan said Tuesday that the 43-year-old entertainer was chosen because his “humor is sophisticated […]