Hundreds of retired journalists and former media professionals, backed by eight press freedom organizations, are pressing the White House Correspondents’ Association to formally denounce what they describe as an escalating campaign against the news media coming from the Trump administration.
The group is asking the WHCA to use its annual dinner, now rescheduled for Friday, as the moment to speak out publicly against the administration’s treatment of journalists.
In an open letter signed by roughly 520 former reporters and editors, along with organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the signatories argued that the association has an obligation to stand firmly behind press freedom in the face of pressure from the president and to commit to pushing back against efforts by his administration to erode First Amendment protections.
The letter contends that hostility toward journalists has only intensified since April, when the originally scheduled dinner was called off following an armed attack near the Washington Hilton. Since then, the signatories wrote, the administration’s actions against reporters and press freedom have grown more blatant.
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Among the examples cited in the letter were recent subpoenas issued by the Department of Justice targeting New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns tied to the Air Force One aircraft gifted to the president by Qatar. The letter’s authors said the legal actions extended beyond the reporters themselves to include family members of at least one of them.
This year’s dinner is set to go ahead Friday in a scaled-back format with heightened security at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, after the original event in April was disrupted by an armed attack that prosecutors have said was intended to target Trump.
Trump has said he plans to attend, describing the decision to hold the event as a display of strength and resolve. Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said the country cannot allow “lunatics” to dictate how Americans live, though he added that he has not yet decided whether he will deliver the speech originally planned for the evening, one in which he had been expected to renew his criticism of the press.
