Vile Michelle Wolf has killed off the comedy feature at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner

Well, for me it all began with the celebriweasel Stephen Colbert and his bullying of George Bush at this same affair. TD

Thomas Lifson  "Purported comedian Michelle Wolf, whose vile attacks at the last White House Correspondents' dinner caused open reactions of dismay from the audience, has induced the group to cancel the custom of featuring a comic at its gatherings.  She has managed to diminish laughter, which is in keeping with the thrust of her unfunny, hate-filled work.  Cancelation is the current theme of her career: her Netflix series lasted three months before getting the axe.  Her reliance on shock and grotesquerie – in place of actual humor based on wit – is at the level of a three-year-old saying "poo-poo head" at the family dinner table, expecting a reaction.  The WHCA demeaned itself by featuring her, and the group seems to have figured that out.

"In a press release, the group touted its choice of Ron Chernow as featured speaker at the next dinner.

"I'm delighted that Ron will share his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history at the 2019 White House Correspondents' Dinner," said Olivier Knox, Chief Washington Correspondent for SiriusXM and president of the WHCA.  "As we celebrate the importance of a free and independent news media to the health of the republic, I look forward to hearing Ron place this unusual moment in the context of American history."

"The White House Correspondents' Association has asked me to make the case for the First Amendment and I am happy to oblige," Chernow said.  "Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics.  My major worry these days is that we Americans will forget who we are as a people and historians should serve as our chief custodians in preserving that rich storehouse of memory.  While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history lesson won't be dry."

Sarah Sanders being attacked by
"The Voice"

"I have never heard Chernow speak, but I have read some of his first-rate work.  Almost certainly, the WHCA is looking to contrast the current POTUS with practices of the past, but such is Chernow's standing as a serious and fair scholar that he has every incentive to avoid cheap shots.  The biggest danger he faces is speaking over the (air)heads of the journalists assembled.

"The correspondents have taken to calling their fashion-show-cum-laugh-fest the "nerd prom" – as if they had the intellectual standing to merit the term "nerd."  With Chernow attending, the title may become justified.  

"No doubt, there are hopes that President Trump will attend next year's dinner, appeased by the assurance that he will not be roasted by a professional comedian.  But with the WHCA promising to disregard the new guidelines offered by the White House in response to the court-ordered "due process" for removing press passes, it will take some further developments for Trump to risk making himself a target of a group that generally hates him and wants him out of office. "