President Trump finally served up his long-planned speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and they hated it so much the reporters started kvetching about how they need to “rethink” this event, since Trump was not “advancing” the First Amendment with his mockery of the press.NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck and Associate Editor Nick Fondacaro joined me to discuss how the elitist media demonstrate the old maxim that they can dish it out, but they can’t take it. They can call him Hitler, but you can’t compare them unfavorably to anyone. This is how they understand the First Amendment — it protects them, and nobody else. Criticizing them and mocking them is somehow contrary to freedom of speech, not an exercise in freedom of speech. Comparing CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to trans-woman actor Dylan Mulvaney is grossly wrong, as was cartooning CBS News under “gay dictator” Bari Weiss as comparable to Iran.New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker tweeted on X on Saturday that it is time for the White House Correspondents’ Association to “rethink” its annual dinner with the president, since it did not “advance” the cause of reporting “without fear or favor.” As if that motto isn’t ridiculous at this point? Baker hates Trump and loves Obama.The tilt of WHCA journalism awards at this dinner also lean to the left, just like the Pulitzer Prizes. This year’s slate was dominated by anti-Trump scoops. So what? It’s a White House reporter dinner. But Curtis has pointed out they did not give out one of the WHCA awards for anti-Biden scoops. Last year, after Biden was forced out of the 2024 campaign, they honored Alex Thompson’s late reporting on Biden’s cognitive decline.Enjoy the podcast below. The audio can be found here.
Commentary Culture Investigations
Stewart Wails First Amendment ‘Opponent’ Trump Was Invited To WHCD
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart reacted on Comedy Central on Monday to President Trump’s Friday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner address by criticizing the media for inviting “your opponent” to an event supposedly meant to celebrate the First Amendment. Later, he welcomed CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to the show and lamented that “this cannot be real” and “that guy runs us.”At one point during his monologue, the 1997 WHCD comedian suggested it was time to shut the dinner down for good, “Look, beyond the fact that Trump was terrible, the dinner should not have happened at all. In fact, shouldn’t ever happen. Memorializing the collegial and cozy relationship between the press and those they cover is, at best, a very bad look in normal times. I don’t need to see the cops and robbers getting along at a banquet honoring our penal code.” Jon Stewart criticizes the White House Correspondents Dinner for inviting Trump “You can celebrate the First Amendment without asking your opponent in that fight what he thinks. You already know what he thinks.” (1/2) pic.twitter.com/OAoXtBkVlA— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 28, 2026 However, for Stewart, inviting Trump was a whole order of magnitude worse, “You can celebrate the First Amendment without asking your opponent in that fight what he thinks. You already know what he thinks.”Stewart then played a montage of clips of Trump attacking the press by calling them “fake news” and other familiar Trump lines, but nothing to suggest that the First Amendment was actually in any danger.Nevertheless, Stewart later asked Collins, “There are times when I watch him and I think to myself, this cannot be real. Like, this can’t be America. America. You have heard of us. We’re great. Yes. We are—we’re number one. We’re the best. That guy runs us? What? In the room that night, did it feel surreal? Did he—was he bombing as hard as it appeared on the TV?” Collins began by replying, “You know, I have covered Trump for ten years, so I have listened to pretty much all of his speeches for ten years, with very little exception, and so I actually think it is helpful for other people to be able to listen to them in their entirety, which people really don’t that much these days. In the room, I think I was not surprised when he insulted me. That happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office. This is just a bigger venue where it was happening.”She then gave Stewart the answer he wanted, “What was most surprising to me was the room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress. It was so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks.”Most conservatives would not complain if Stewart got his wish and the WHCD ceased to be a made-for-TV spectacle where journalists tell other journalists how awesome they are, but what Collins and so many of her colleagues fail to appreciate is that Trump’s routine turned the tables on the dinner after years of gratuitously nasty jokes about conservatives. Trump may have said Collins looks like Dylan Mulvaney, but Wanda Sykes wished that Rush Limbaugh would die.Here is a transcript for the July 27 show:Comedy Central The Daily Show7/27/202611:19 PM ETJON STEWART: Look, beyond the fact that Trump was terrible, the dinner should not have happened at all. In fact, shouldn’t ever happen. Memorializing the collegial and cozy relationship between the press and those they cover is, at best, a very bad look in normal times. I don’t need to see the cops and robbers getting along at a banquet honoring our penal code. You can celebrate the First Amendment without asking your opponent in that fight what he thinks. You already know what he thinks.…11:28 PM ETSTEWART: There are times when I watch him and I think to myself, this cannot be real. Like, this can’t be America. America. You have heard of us. We’re great.KAITLAN COLLINS: Been here. 34 years.STEWART: Yes. We are—we’re number one. We’re the best. That guy runs us? What? In the room that night, did it feel surreal? Did he—was he bombing as hard as it appeared on the TV?COLLINS: You know, I have covered Trump for ten years, so I have listened to pretty much all of his speeches for ten years, with very little exception, and so I actually think it is helpful for other people to be able to listen to them in their entirety, which people really don’t that much these days. In the room, I think I was not surprised when he insulted me. That happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office.STEWART: Yes.COLLINS: This is just a bigger venue where it was happening. What was most surprising to me was the room was filled with a lot of his staffers, his cabinet, his allies, Republicans in Congress. It was so quiet in the room during the president’s remarks.
Jews Must Do For Themselves, Publishing Edition
One author has decided to take matters into her own hands.
Deadly U.S. Boat Strikes Haven’t Curbed Cocaine Supply
Horton et al., Wash Post
Fauci’s Diaries Show Legacy Media Infected with Bias
Tom Elliott, X Which media personalities fare the worse in Fauci’s diary? Some standouts. We can start w/ professional CNN journalist @DanaBashCNN emailing Fauci quotes about how “Jim Jordan…
Inside the Elite Club for ‘Politically Homeless’ Dems
Olivia Empson, London Times A group of educated, well-dressed women are meeting monthly in Manhattan to discuss how they can support the people — without being a far-left progressive.
Trump Sitting on Billions Approved for Transit
Emily Badger & Alicia Parlapiano, NYT
Setting the Record Straight on the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program
Much of the media coverage of both teen pregnancy trends and the TPPP program itself has been very misleading.
America’s Big Cities Rapidly Losing Kids
Paul Overberg & Rachel Louise Ensign, WSJ
Across the World, Iran War Is Reshaping Everyday Life
Staff, Associated Press Across seven countries, seven people woke up to days that no longer looked the way they once did. For those far from the battlefield, the war arrived not as missiles…