Identified for laughs, D.C. dinner to highlight reporting dangers

WASHINGTON — There will nonetheless be loads of laughs, however the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner on Saturday additionally plans to tackle the intense and solemn position of journalism in a democracy.

This 12 months’s dinner happens as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been imprisoned in Russia. He was detained in March and charged with spying, regardless of sturdy denials from his employer and the U.S. authorities. His household will probably be among the many 2,600 folks attending the gala on the Washington Hilton.

Also attending will probably be Debra Tice, the mom of Austin Tice, who has not been heard from since disappearing at a checkpoint in Syria in 2012. U.S. officers say they function below the belief that he’s alive and are working to attempt to convey him house.

“They are among hundreds of journalists around the world who are wrongfully detained for the simple act of doing journalism – which is not a crime,” mentioned Tamara Keith, a White House correspondent for NPR and the affiliation’s president.

Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is predicted to open the dinner with a pre-taped video concerning the significance of a free and impartial press.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the dinner, with comic Roy Wood Jr., a correspondent for “The Daily Show,” because the featured entertainer.

Wood gave a preview of the place his jokes have been headed, predicting that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t more likely to finish his tradition clashes or cease his feud with Disney simply due to a number of jibes. The comic advised CNN to not anticipate DeSantis to say, “’You know what, man, you’re right. Go ahead and put black history back in them books.’ … He’s fighting Mickey Mouse. You can’t change that person’s mind with a joke.”