*By Tracey Cheek*
In a sharp contrast to years past, the White House Correspondents' Dinner will not feature a class clown, but a professor ー First Amendment historian Ron Chernow.
The sober-minded selection comes after comedian Michelle Wolf's take-no-prisoners routine at the last event in April ー her jabs at Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in particular, incited outrage from the White House and some of the reporters in attendance.
“\[Chernow is\] not going to be controversial, he’ll be a very ‘eat your vegetables’ performer," said Jon Levine, media editor at The Wrap
Chernow ー a significant deviation from the likes of Stephen Colbert and Wanda Sykes ー is best known for his thick volumes on American presidents. Perhaps most notably, his book on Alexander Hamilton inspired the hit Broadway musical and cultural phenomenon, “Hamilton.”
But does it really matter who gets up and tells jokesー or in this year's case, gives a history lesson ー to a group of journalists? Levine said that the White House Correspondents' Dinner has been criticized as an access journalism event, and for all the rumblings, it's not particularly important.
“The event has gotten criticism since as long as I can remember," he said." From a lot of journalists who say it’s weird to sort of be writing all this very tough coverage about Trump or Sarah Sanders or whatever, and then you go there and have drinks with everybody and pal around. It's a little strange.”
President Trump has not shown up to a White House Correspondents dinner since taking office, in contrast to his predecessors, and Levine is positive that this year will be no exception.
“There is not a question, he will not show up,” he said.
“It’s clearly just not his thing. He knows that he goes after the press every single day. It would be a hostile audience. It would be at best awkward.”
Philadelphia City Council passed legislation to ban ski masks in some public spaces, a measure supporters say will increase public safety amid high violent crime, but opponents argue it will unfairly target people without proof of any wrongdoing.
A federal appeals court ruled that former President Donald Trump won't have presidential immunity in civil lawsuits related to the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP28 kicked off in Dubai and major progress is already being made.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis squared off in a very unusual political debate Thursday night on Fox News.
Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, died Friday, the high court said.
Sen. Rand Paul successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on fellow Sen. Joni Ernst as she choked at a GOP lunch that she was hosting.
Israeli fighter jets hit targets in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired on Friday, signaling that the war with Hamas has resumed in full force.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for two prominent conservatives who arranged luxury travel and other benefits for Supreme Court justices, but Republicans planned to object to the legitimacy of the action.
Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year's elections, Meta said Thursday.
The House voted on Friday to expel Republican Rep. George Santos of New York after a critical ethics report on his conduct that accused him of converting campaign donations for his own use. He was just the sixth member in the chamber's history to be ousted by colleagues.
