White House Correspondents’ Association President Says Press Is Not ‘The Enemy,’ Takes Aim At Trump | EUROtoday

The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association gave a vehement speech in protection of the group and free press throughout Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner.

The annual occasion was snubbed by President Donald Trump but once more this yr.

“We journalists are a lot of things. We are competitive and pushy. We are impatient and sometimes we think we know everything, but we’re also human,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels mentioned on stage on the occasion on the Washington Hilton lodge. “We miss our families and significant life moments in service to this job.”

He went on to inform the gang that “we care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust.”

“What we are not is the opposition, what we are not is the enemy of the people and what we are not is the enemy of the state,” Daniels added as the gang erupted in applause.

His feedback had been apparently aimed toward Trump, who has repeatedly voiced harmful accusations towards the press, calling them the “enemy of the people” a number of occasions since taking workplace for his first time period in January 2017.

Trump’s second administration has been riddled with a ramped-up surge of anti-media rhetoric and relentless assaults on “fake news.” In February, The Associated Press was banned from the presidential pool for not referring to the “Gulf of Mexico” by Trump’s most well-liked title for the geographic landmark — “Gulf of America” — following his government order.

Trump is the one president, except for Ronald Reagan, who hasn’t attended the annual Correspondents’ Dinner whereas in workplace since its first occasion in 1921which was began by journalists who cowl the White House. Notably, Reagan’s absence in 1981 was reportedly because of his restoration after he was shot in an assassination try.

“I want to be clear about something: We don’t invite presidents of the United States to this because it’s for them,” Daniels continued in his speech. “We don’t invite them because we want to cozy up to them or curry favor. We don’t only extend invites to the presidents who say they love journalists or who say they are defenders of the First Amendment and a free press.”

The head of WHCA added: “We invite them to remind them that they should be. We invite them to demonstrate that those of us who have chosen the public service of journalism aren’t doing it because we love flights on Air Force One or walking into the Oval Office. It’s to remind them why a strong Fourth Estate is essential for democracy.”