Scott MacFarlane skipped out on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night, warning other journalists it wasn’t “a good look to be there.”
The former CBS News correspondent explained his decision to pass on the event in a video uploaded to YouTube ahead of the event on Saturday.
“I would rather be sitting home with a Swanson’s ‘Hungry Man,’ frozen dinner, bowl of popcorn, beer and some ‘Seinfeld’ reruns,” he sounded off on “Scott MacFarlane Reports.” “It’s just a better thing to do right now. It’s not a bad thing to do anytime, but especially when you have people who are being feted at this party, president, defense secretary, who have been challenging the First Amendment, who’ve been challenging news organizations, who’ve been trying to delegitimize and decommission news organizations, and who’ve been suing news organizations at an event for the First Amendment.”
He candidly added: “Doesn’t seem like a good fit or a good look to be there.”
Later on in the upload, MacFarlane also shared a clip from a conversation he had with Oliver Darcy and the team at “Status” on the topic.
“I’m not keen on [attending],” he said. “I mean, this is not happening in a vacuum. I mean, the president has sued media organizations. He has sued them for millions, if not billions of dollars. He has menaced reporters, name called reporters.”
MacFarlane continued: “He has executed a media strategy that demeans journalists. And I would argue to some people, his critics, it may offend the First Amendment by trying to limit what people say or how they say things. What’s more, his defense secretary has executed a media policy that has literally become a federal case.”
As a result, he also said, it “feels a little bit odd to be celebrating the First Amendment and championing education of young journalism students by having an event that has guests of honor of that sort.” Watch his comments below.
The 2026 WHCD will be the first Trump has attended as president. Mentalist Oz Pearlman will be on hand as the night’s entertainer and vowed to “get inside” the president’s head while speaking to MS NOW’s “The Weekend” hosts Jonathan Capehart, Jacqueline Alemany and Eugene Daniels on Saturday.
“Nothing classified will be revealed tonight. I believe,” Pearlman told the trio. “I will never reveal anything publicly.”
He also insisted he’s been preparing for this moment for a decade. “I’ve been watching video for months. I’ve been thinking about this moment for 10 years,” Pearlman explained. “I said if I had a chance to be in front of President Trump, what is the ultimate thing I could do if I had 60 seconds? What’s my elevator pitch that will be talked about in the entire world on Sunday and Monday morning?”
