After opening with a series of sexually explicit jokes about porn stars and Women’s March attire, Wolf turned to the head table and joked, “Yeah, shoulda’ done more research before you got me to do this.”
The bulk of the comedian’s material was aimed at President Donald Trump. The criticism of her routine focused on the female comedian targeting the women in the Trump administration from Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ eye makeup, to Ivanka Trump’s role advocating for women and suggesting White House strategist Kellyanne Conway get stuck under a tree.
The quality of Wolf’s stand-up routine was certainly debatable, but after watching the reaction, experts in political satire say Washington needs to learn how to take a joke.
On Sunday morning, the head of White House Press Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), Margaret Talev, issued a formal apology for the comedian’s performance, saying Wolf’s monologue “was not in the spirit” of the WHCA’s mission.
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, whose relationship with Joe Scarborough Wolf made fun of as “when a Me Too works out,” denounced the comedian’s attacks on Sarah Sanders as “deplorable.”
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell also argued Sarah Sanders “and others grossly insulted [by] Michele Wolf” deserved an apology, calling the comedian “the worst” since Don Imus roasted President Bill Clinton at the 1996 correspondents’ dinner.
Jon Karl, ABC News journalist and WHCA board member, said bluntly, “I think the comedian crossed the line,” adding, “this went from poking fun to being mean-spirited.”
Karl continued “I think most people in that room were uncomfortable with the direction of the jokes. No question at all.”
“The White House Press Correspondents’ dinner comedy has often been of this roast variety and it’s going to be uncomfortable,” she said. “But I don’t necessarily think that’s a negative.”
Michelle Wolf has not apologized for her performance and seemed upbeat on social media where she thanked former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer after he called her performance “a disgrace.”
Author and Pennsylvania State University professor Sophia McClennen, who is currently working on a book about satire in the age of Donald Trump, agreed that provoking a reaction from the politicos gathered for the event is part of the comedian’s job.
“Washington is unable to take a joke,” she said, “That’s a constant. I think it’s the laughing in their face that makes this particular event tricky.”
Wolf’s jokes were generally more sexually explicit than the typical correspondents’ dinner, but many of the personal attacks on members of the administration were not as “outrageous” as the material aired on late-night comedy shows, McClennen continued. “They seem to want to be outraged.”
A number of critics of the dinner argued it was inappropriate for Wolf to resort to personal insults and graphic language saying it detracted from the media’s goal of elevating civil discourse.
In recent years, both President Trump and the media have been blamed for the decline and fall of civil political discourse, whether it was Trump’s off-color comments on the Access Hollywood tape or the uncensored reporting on the president’s remarks about “s***hole countries.” Wolf defended some of her language saying, “He said it first.”
Acknowledging the underlying problems, McClennen stressed it’s “absurd to be looking to political comedy” to elevate civility in the political debate.
In her research, McClennen has found evidence that political comedians like Stephen Colbert or John Oliver are, in some cases, more trusted than the news media. That shift is not necessarily good for democracy in American, she warned, “But the reality is, the news media has sort of brought it on itself. And I would say this feigned outrage over the Wolf performance is exactly why the public is sick of them.”
As journalists face a growing credibility gap with the American public, some argued Wolf’s anti-Trump act provided more fuel to support that public distrust and lend credibility to the president’s narrative that the mainstream media is his political enemy.
On Monday, Trump tweeted, “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it. This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for. FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!”
“Realistically, this is an entertainment piece,” she said, noting those who already distrust the news and entertainment media were already looking for more evidence to support their distrust.
“What she did was not fake news. What she did was not news,” Vigil emphasized. “So folks who are pointing to that as evidence of fake news are simply reinforcing their own perspective.”
That perspective is increasingly popular, according to recent studies, particularly among conservatives.
An April study by Monmouth University found 77 percent of Americans believe traditional TV news and newspaper outlets report “fake news.” This was a significant increase from the 63 percent of Americans who reported the same feeling in 2017. The increase was driven largely by Republicans and Independents expressing less confidence in the independence of the news media.
A poll released last week similarly showed conservatives growing increasingly skeptical of the fourth estate, with 51 percent of Republicans polled saying they believe the news media is “the enemy of the people.”
Day questioned whether much can be done to counter the “fake news” narrative and Americans’ growing distrust in the news media. She asserted, “it certainly isn’t Michelle Wolf’s responsibility to stop that narrative. If anything it’s her job to continue to point out the hypocrisies, to go after them and let the chips fall where they may.”
In response to the latest controversy, Margaret Talev said the White House press corps will review “the format of the dinner going forward,” as a new WHCA president takes over. It’s not clear whether that could mean toning down the often provocative comedy acts.
The purpose of the event is to celebrate the First Amendment with awards for journalists and scholarships for promising students. In the past 30 years, the comedic roast of the president and the press corps has become a tradition and helped draw attention to an otherwise obscure event.
For the past two years, Trump has avoided the correspondents’ dinner, holding competing campaign-style rallies outside of Washington, D.C. In a letter to supporters last week, Trump explained that he would not attend the event where he would have to bear criticism from the press. “Why would I want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me?”
McClennen argued strongly in favor of keeping the format despite the controversies different comedians have created over the years, precisely because it represents a celebration of the First Amendment.
“That we could have a comedian stand up and publicly make fun of our president, usually in front of that person, is completely unique on the planet,” she said. “It would be a real shame if we get rid of it because it’s one of those few moments when everything that’s difficult about our country is everything that’s great.”
