The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — known for its fun albeit ferocious jabs at Washington — took a more solemn tone this year as US President Joe Biden acknowledged the several US journalists under siege in authoritarian countries around the world.
“We are here to send a message to the country and, quite frankly, to the world: The free press is a pillar, maybe the pillar, of a free society, not the enemy,” Biden said in his speech.
The president and first lady Jill Biden, upon arriving at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, met privately with the parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March.
Photo: AP
He was charged with spying, despite strong denials from his employer and the US government.
Some guests wore buttons with “Free Evan” printed on them.
Also among the 2,600 people attending the gala was Debra Tice, the mother of Austin Tice, who has not been heard from since disappearing at a checkpoint in Syria in 2012.
US officials say they are operating under the assumption that he is alive and are working to try to bring him home.
“Journalism is not a crime. Evan and Austin should be released immediately, along with every other American detained abroad,” Biden said. “I promise you, I am working like hell to get them home.”
The annual black-tie dinner drew a wide array of celebrities and media moguls to Washington, with parties being held across the capital.
Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opened the dinner with a pre-taped video about the importance of a free and independent press, calling reporters an “ally of the people.”
While Biden spent the majority of his speech focused on the issue of press freedom, he took time to take jabs at some of his most vocal political critics.
Headlining the after-dinner entertainment was Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr, who gleefully mocked Biden, 80, for running for a second term in the White House that could mean he is still president at age 86.
Wood noted recent angry protests in France against raising the retirement age.
“They rioted because they didn’t want to work until 64. Meanwhile, in America, we have an 80-year-old man begging us for four more years of work,” he dead-panned, drawing a broad smile from Biden, sitting only meters away.
“‘Let me finish the job.’ That’s not a campaign slogan, that’s a plea,” Wood said. “Say what you want about our president, but when he wakes up from that nap, work gets done.”
Biden aimed one of his barbs at media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old owner of conservative TV network Fox News.
“You might think I don’t like Rupert Murdoch — that’s simply not true. How can I dislike a guy who makes me look like [29-year-old pop star] Harry Styles?” Biden said.
He also targeted CNN presenter Don Lemon who was sacked allegedly after sexist and ageist on-air remarks.
“Call me old — I call it being seasoned. You say I am ancient — I say I’m wise. You say I’m over the hill — Don Lemon would say that’s a man in his prime,” he said.
The dinner institution had started to wither — first boycotted by Donald Trump, then shut down altogether to fend off COVID-19.
But this year’s event for 2,600 guests was sold out, and attended by both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Having the president and vice president in attendance restored a tradition last observed in 2016, the final dinner before Trump entered the White House.
“Folks, it is wonderful to be back here again, proving I haven’t learned a damn thing,” Biden said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver