Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Playboy Comes to DC
Playboy Enterprises just announced that it has purchased a table at this year’s White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Swell. Just what we need.
The dinner, as you’ve probably heard, is an annual ritual of narcissism in which leading press figures don black tie and hope to see, or better yet, be seen with Hollywood stars. Like much of politics, much of journalism has become entertainment, and though journalists dub the dinner the “nerd prom,” the self-deprecation becomes more strained with each passing year as journalists themselves have become, literally and otherwise, “beautiful people.”
In 2011, President Barack Obama took the podium at the dinner to mock a particular guest – Donald Trump. Admittedly, Trump fired the first shots by seizing on the “birther” conspiracy, but even unprovoked, Obama had a weakness for scorn, and he ladled it on liberally. The cameras caught Trump glowering with no pretense of being a good sport. Seth Myers, the evening’s other entertainer, piled on: “Donald Trump has been saying he’ll run for president as a Republican, which is surprising as I just assumed he was running as a joke.”
It’s traditional for presidents to respond to the ribbing with a speech of their own, taking gentle swipes at the media and, ideally, themselves. Nancy Reagan was able to transform her image as a snooty Marie Antoinette when she performed a skit wearing rags and singing “Second Hand Rose.”
In 2017, President Trump, who has called the press “the enemy of the American people,” declined to attend, and says he will skip this year’s fest as well. It’s traditional for the president’s speech to be disarmingly self-deprecating, an unfamiliar mode for Mr. Trump.
Most will shrug at the inclusion of Playboy among the evening’s hosts. “The Bunny Beacon will be beaming from Washington” proclaimed the Washington Post, quoting Cooper Hefner’s diagnosis that “D.C. has a tendency to be sort of high-strung.” There were the pro-forma invocations of the First Amendment. The Post nodded to “Hugh Hefner’s clear interest in a free press,” but wondered why Playboy has waited until now to participate in the Correspondents dinner. The Hill’s reporting sheds some light on that. The invitation reportedly read: “Playboy has always been a passionate fighter for the First Amendment and for a free press in general.” Playboy’s participation this year will serve as an “appreciation for the work [journalists] do with a wink and nod to the culture and politics of D.C.”
Ah, so it’s a victory lap. The grandfather of porn, Playboy, is holding this party now to celebrate its triumph in every realm of American life. The “wink and nod” can be interpreted in many ways, but at least one immediately leaps to mind: The party of family values has elevated a man who has been featured on a Playboy cover and proudly displayed it in his New York office. Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his wife posed in front of that cover with Trump, all three making the thumbs up sign, which, in context, was a gesture of surrender to the libertine culture Falwell’s father burned to resist.
And while the mostly liberal Washington press corps has a more benign view of pornography than evangelicals do, they do have some standards, don’t they? The White House Correspondents Association could have declined to include Playboy. After all, the supposed true purpose of the organization is to raise money for journalism students, though there are accounts suggesting that fewer and fewer of the proceeds have lately been going to scholarships. But simply for their sense of decorum and whatever seriousness of purpose they purport to uphold, they might have rejected Playboy’s money. They have been awfully censorious toward Sean Hannity (justifiably) for blurring the lines between journalism and sycophancy, so you might think they’d want to draw a line between what they do and what Playboy does. Sorry, I seem to have slipped into a reverie. Who are we kidding? Who doubts that some mainstream news organization will invite Stormy Daniels or Karen McDougal? As for Playboy, they’ve already invited Anthony Scaramucci, which is about perfect. Sleazy meets disgusting. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which.
Published in Politics
Well he should say they are dominated by statists and are worthless at best. The Erick Erickson Show was just brutal the other day.
Does Playboy even matter anymore?
“And while the mostly liberal Washington press corps has a more benign view of pornography than evangelicals do, they do have some standards, don’t they?“
No.
No, which makes its choice as a topic for a column rather unusual. But I suppose that it provided an opportunity to regurgitate the “party of family values” line. It’s been several weeks since we read that one.
What is the message that they think they want to send by having Playboy there? Is Trump any worse than the notorious POTUS’s everyone already knows about? Does it highlight the Democrat-statist media double standards?
Well, including Playboy might be a way to get Trump to show up.
I’m sure Mona is equally critical of Jonah and his friends who routinely bring up pornography and make jokes about it as if it’s a laughing matter, right? Never heard anyone point the finger at the teenage gutter banter that is frequently found on certain NR podcasts, but perhaps the participants are so mature they’re allowed to joke around like that.
Mona,
Once you accept the premise that left-wing arguments are the equivalent of morality than all one needs to look at is the narrative. Everything that isn’t a threat to the narrative, no matter how tasteless, is just a joke. Ha, ha!
Thus the left wing media gives us a double poison. First, a narrative less the facts mentality that is incapable of recognizing much less solving any real problem. Second, a continuous tone deaf coarsening of the culture by their grotesque sense of “humor?”. Playboy bunnies at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Ha, ha, what a joke.
The idiot media is the joke.
Regards,
Jim
The Beltway is a corrupt sewer. Remember Washingtonienne?
Having a Playboy table is just truth in advertising. And if it earns the wrath of decent Americans against Washington, politics, and the media…. then it is probably a net win.
Fits in rather well with former Playboy bunny Kimba Wood overseeing the Stormy Daniels/Michael Cohen case. Any port in a Stormy. Apparently, good ol’ Kimba was pretty hot back in the day, according to at least one Member of Congress.
So now I’m shocked, shocked I say, to see Playboy bunnies at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Uh huh, that’s the ticket. If this were the plot of a work of fiction, it would be dismissed as absurd. Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
Roger Stone says he dated Kimba Wood, too. lol
dr.,
Kimba is a nastier piece of work than that.
JUDGE KIMBA WOOD FILES FOR DIVORCE, CITES LACK OF SEX
She lied about the sex and was working the husband over for plenty of money even though she was making $140,000 a year at the time. What is much more interesting is that she was having an affair with a very rich married man at the time. She broke up the rich guy’s marriage of 22 years and stole the woman’s husband. The rich guy was worth over $200 million and she was beating up her old spouse for every nickel she could get.
She would have been Clinton’s Attorney General but hired an illegal to take care of her nine-year-old son from the first marriage. Going for the cheap for the son while she lavished more and more on herself. Sounds like a Karma problem to me. She is an egotistical grasping awful creature. I feel sorry for the rich guy. Probably made a huge mistake.
Regards,
Jim
Why did the judge have to reveal Hanity’s name? It’s seems gratuitous, to me.
This is a good game. Dredge up any piece of dirt on any judge who makes any ruling that’s even slightly inconvenient to the glorious leader.
She presided over George Soros’s wedding, too.
Wood was dubbed the “love judge” over 20 years ago for her antics and, before that, was unceremoniously bounced from a nomination for Attorney General. But let’s pretend that she’s just like “any judge” making “any ruling.” That’s an even better game.
Okay … and?
Are you saying that despite decades in the bench, she couldn’t possibly set aside her political opinions and rule fairly? Are you saying she’s automatically biased against the glorious leader?
Maybe. This is the way the game is played now, if you haven’t noticed. Also, Soros sucks. I hope she’s never associated with him much.
What’s the game? That anyone who does anything convenient cannot possibly be acting in good faith or with professionalism and that they must be biased against the glorious leader?
I get your point and I’d like to leave it at that, but everything is about Critical Theory all the time now.
“The “glorious leader” count is presently at 3 or one every 5.66 minutes. Stay tuned for further updates.
I’ve wondered that, too. I’m no fan of Hannity, but how was this material to anything before the court?
Fred,
You mean like find an instance of a single sexual dalliance over a decade ago then manufacture a phony campaign finance charge out of it so you can take a rubber hose to the guy’s lawyer in the back room until he creates a crime that never happened. Is that the kind of thing you are referring to?
By the way, I’m already in favor of the next war.
Regards,
Jim
Wait. Didn’t Playboy stop printing nude photos recently?( I only know because I canceled my subscription when I heard the news.) They are trying to get legitimate, and there’s nothing especially legitimate about any other publications.
The legacy of that magazine alone is legitimate. It was a hybrid. Eventually, you really would read the articles. But the articles were good and the interviews were of important interesting people who might not have been exposed otherwise. They also took on more controversial issues in the day and , perhaps because of their paraiah status as a smut rag, took on other valid perspectives.
I remember when Bob Giaconne started Penthouse, significantly more racy. Ultimately Playboy had to match the exposure but remained more optimistic and more wholesome, as it were. Penthouse was darker, the sex a bit nastier, the females much sluttier, and the copy more cynical.
But I wonder how airings of Playboy Late at Night would enamor the brand to the #YouKnowWho movement.
My idea for Playboy is to license its name for bathrobes, actually modeled after perpetual wearer of night-jackets Hugh Hefner. They can be actual replicas, in silk or terry cloth. They come in three sizes, Weiner, Weinstein, and Bubba. By special order, you can get the Cosby, with secret pockets for your aphrodisiacs.
Ah, you might want to look into the Michael Milken case – a case over which she presided.
Before you say that he was a very, very bad egg, there is another side to the story, one that involves him accepting the sentence in exchange for not having his family crucified as he had been. The powers that be threatened to dig until they found any little thing – and there’s always something in everybody’s life – to hang members of his family. BTW, the only thing they could find on Milken was a discrepancy involving a relatively small amount of money – no more than $20k – which was adequately explained to the court. No matter – it was his destiny to be the poster boy for Wall Street greed. Even Judge Wood ruled there wasn’t sufficient evidence by the prosecution to warrant a conviction, but gave them extra time to come up with something. They did her bidding and the rest is history.
Can’t find an excellent article in National Review written shortly after the trial. Will keep searching…
Washington DC is an interesting city. It would be tough to work a vice car there. One day someone is a pimp, and the next day a prostitute. I’m not just talking about politicians. Perhaps the bunnies finally showed up because Ted Kennedy is not around to give anyone a ride home.
I’m surprised to hear Playboy is still being published. Haven’t seen it on newstands in ages. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a newstand in ages.
There’s more than one way for a publication to not be legitimate. Arguably, one way is to publish a lot of girlie pictures à la Penthouse. Another way is to be biased in reporting, like the NYT or WaPo. At least Penthouse and Playboy were up front (pun intended) about what they were doing. Those other guys, not so much. When it comes to integrity and honesty, Playboy is ahead of the legacy news media.
Moderator Note:
Hostile.What [redacted] are you talking about?
I applaud Trump not going, which is something I have long wanted in a President. I thought that because conservatives I read laid out arguments that I found convincing. I hope he never goes and this sets the standard .
I think Playboy has no business there, but it’s not my dinner. The fact they have them coming shows how good Trump is doing on this issue.
This seems to be a Trump action all of us can praise, pro and anti Trump alike.