To the editor: This 12 months’s rescheduled and far smaller White Home correspondents’ dinner was definitely essentially the most weird in its century-old historical past (“Trump returns to correspondents’ dinner for a rambling, insult-filled speech,” July 24).
The theme of the night was a celebration of the first Modification, and there was a banner behind the dais to intensify it.
The president believes in free speech provided that one agrees with him. For members of the media, any goal protection of the Trump White Home that may be perceived as damaging dangers efforts to squelch stated protection. He requires tv networks that he doesn’t like to lose their broadcast licenses, for reporters who offend him to be hounded and subpoenaed, and for comedians who’ve the audacity to joke about him to be fired. Intimidating his perceived foes into silence is the secret for this president, and he has typically sought to again it up by utilizing the police powers of presidency towards his many enemies.
Though the president gave the impression to be cordial with lots of the members of the media whom he encountered on the dinner, that was deceptive. Probably the most divisive president ever to serve was true to kind, noting “I hate some individuals.” Think about how he would have reacted if an edgy comic had appeared, somebody who was not afraid to insult him.
It’s simple to know why many journalists had urged those that deliberate the dinner to not invite a president who’s an enemy of free speech and freedom of the press.
Oren Spiegler, Peters Township, Pa.
