April 28, 2024

“Shame On You!”: Antiwar Protesters Picket White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Inside, though, the plight of Palestinian journalists was largely ignored.

Protesters boycotted the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night.Probal Rashid/ZUMA

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Before guests could get inside last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner, they had to wade through a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters who reminded them of the journalists who have been killed covering Israel’s war on Gaza. 

The annual dinner, nicknamed “nerd prom,” is hosted by the group of journalists who cover the White House and attended by members of the media, politicians, and celebrities alike. But last night, a large group of protesters were also present outside the Washington Hilton to greet guests decked out in ball gowns and tuxedos. The protesters were holding signs demanding a ceasefire and an end to “media complicity in genocide.” 

Videos posted on social media show the crowd chanting “shame on you!” and “every time the media lies, a journalist in Gaza dies” as attendees filed into the event. Protesters also set up a memorial of what resembled blood-stained press jackets on the street to honor the Palestinian journalists killed covering the war, with some laying motionless on the pavement next to them, the Associated Press reports. As of Saturday, at least 97 journalists and media workers—92 Palestinians, two Israelis, and three Lebanese—have been killed since the war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which adds that more than two dozen journalists have also been arrested and more than a dozen reported injured. (A CPJ spokesperson said the organization wasn’t involved with planning the protests and pointed to a statement the organization put out prior to the dinner recognizing “the importance of press freedom for democracy.”) 

The United Nations, and some protesters, cite a higher figure of 125 journalists and media workers killed, based on the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. In an open letter dated April 15, that group and more than two dozen Palestinian journalists also called on American journalists to boycott Saturday night’s dinner.

“We have witnessed how journalists across the U.S. have demanded justice for fellow journalists like Jamal Khashoggi, Shireen Abu Akleh, and Evan Gershkovich. It is past time journalists take action for journalists in Gaza,” their letter said. 

The letter also echoed critiques that some Western media outlets have shown pro-Israel bias and ignored the suffering of Palestinians in their reporting. “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is an embodiment of media manipulation, trading journalistic ethics for access,” it says. “For journalists to fraternize at an event with President Biden and Vice President Harris would be to normalize, sanitize, and whitewash the administration’s role in genocide.”

 

Most attendees appeared to ignore the protesters, according to the videos posted on social media. But Caitlyn Jenner—who has been a vocal supporter of Israel and Donald Trump—appeared to engage with them, yelling, filming them, and flipping them off; this morning, she alleged in a post on X, without evidence, that the protesters were “terrorist sympathizers” and antisemitic. 

Inside the dinner, the plight of Palestinian journalists appears to have been largely ignored; it was only mentioned once, in a speech by NBC News Senior White House Correspondent and President of the White House Correspondents’ Association Kelly O’Donnell, who acknowledged the tally of nearly 100 journalists killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to a video captured by Al Jazeera.

President Biden didn’t mention the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza during his speech, according to the AP; instead, he poked fun at concerns about his age and mocked Trump, continuing a tradition for the current president to deliver something of a roast at the annual dinner. “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old,” Biden said at one point. 

A bit later, he quipped: “Age is the only thing we have in common—my vice president actually endorses me.”

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