The dinner:
SAVE THE DATE - APRIL 29, 2017
Interesting statements on the WHCA site:
FEBRUARY 2, 2017 STATEMENT
Subject: Note to members about this year's WHCA dinner
To our members: We've received some queries about the 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner, which will be the first since the new administration took office. The White House Correspondents' Association will hold its annual dinner on April 29 at the Washington Hilton. This year, as we do every year, we will celebrate the First Amendment and the role an independent press plays in a healthy republic. We will also reward some of the finest political reporting of the past year while using our scholarship program to highlight and support up-and-coming journalists who are the future of our profession. In the meantime, the WHCA will pursue its core mission of advocating for journalists' ability to ask questions of government officials, push for transparency from the presidency, and help Americans hold the powerful to account. This is a responsibility that we have taken seriously for more than 100 years and will continue to uphold.
-Jeff Mason, WHCA president
JANUARY 15, 2017 STATEMENT
Subject: WHCA statement on meeting with Sean Spicer
On behalf of the White House Correspondents' Association, I met with incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer today. We had a constructive, nearly 2-hour meeting. We discussed his interest in increasing participation in White House briefings when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. That has sparked his team to consider moving daily briefings out of the White House's James S. Brady Press Briefing Room to a larger facility on the White House complex.
The White House Correspondents' Association has always advocated for increasing access and transparency for the benefit of all news outlets and the public.
I emphasized the importance of the White House press briefing room and noted that it is open to all journalists who seek access now.
I made clear that the WHCA would view it as unacceptable if the incoming administration sought to move White House reporters out of the press work space behind the press briefing room. Access in the West Wing to senior administration officials, including the press secretary, is critical to transparency and to journalists' ability to do their jobs.
Sean agreed to discuss any additional changes that the incoming administration considers with the WHCA ahead of time.
Sean expressed concern that journalists adhere to a high level of decorum at press briefings and press conferences. I made clear that the WHCA would object, always, to a reporter being thrown out of a briefing or press conference.
The WHCA looks forward to having a constructive relationship with the president-elect's press team and to standing up for the rights of a free press to report vigorously on the new administration.
-Jeff Mason, WHCA president