More than 250 journalists sent a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Association on Monday urging the organization to use its annual dinner on Saturday to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Donald Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
The letter was signed by some prominent TV news veterans, including former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, former “Today” host Ann Curry and former ABC News anchor Sam Donaldson, among others. Organizations that joined the letter include the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Press Photographers Association, among others.
The journalists describe the Trump administration’s attacks on the press over the last year as “the most systematic and comprehensive assault on freedom of the press by a sitting American president.” It comes as Trump is set to make his first appearance at the dinner as president alongside First Lady Melania Trump and administration officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was invited by CBS News.
“There is a long tradition of presidents attending the White House Correspondents Association Dinner,” the letter read. “But these are not normal times, and this cannot be business as usual with the press standing up to applaud the man who attacks them on a daily basis.”
The letter was organized by former ABC News staffers Ian Cameron and Lisa Stark, according to the New York Times, which first reported the letter.
The WHCA did not have an immediate comment. The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The letter also lists nearly two dozen actions by Trump and his administration attacking or taking action against journalists. The signatories asked the WHCA to demonstrate its allegiance to the First Amendment by issuing a “forceful defense” of the freedom of the press from the dinner dias and toast to the constitutional amendment. It also asked the organization to promise to “fight back” against any government official “who has waged systematic war against the journalists whose work the dinner celebrates.”
