*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.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is pushing a bill to save venues for music and the arts hit hard during the pandemic shutdowns.
With just two months left until the U.S. presidential election, Facebook says it is taking additional steps to encourage voting, minimize misinformation and reduce the likelihood of post-election “civil unrest.”
The timeline raised concern among public health experts about an “October surprise" — a vaccine approval driven by political considerations ahead of a presidential election, rather than science.
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for records about widespread delays to mail delivery.
NBA all-star Jrue Holiday is working to combat systemic racism by donating his remaining salary. The New Orleans Pelicans guard is working with Resilia, a technology platform, to track his donations and ensure change is really happening.
Facebook said Tuesday that it removed a small network of accounts and pages linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency, the “troll factory" that has used social media accounts to sow political discord in the U.S. since the 2016 presidential election.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer confirmed the U.S. House of Representatives will vote in September on the MORE Act, which seeks to decriminalize cannabis and remove it from the Controlled Substances Act
Mayor Bill de Blasio says New York City is delaying sending students back to classrooms in the nation’s largest public school system.
China on Friday introduced export restrictions on artificial intelligence technology, including the type that TikTok uses to choose which videos to spool up to its users.
A Star of David-adorned El Al plane has landed in Abu Dhabi after flying in from Israel, carrying a high-ranking American and Israeli delegation in the first-ever direct commercial passenger flight to the United Arab Emirates.
