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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
I don’t see it either:
Those four words denote consent. This is taking advantage in pre-#metoo fashion. It’s alpha-male-ism, nothing more.
They may connote consent. They do not absolve Trump (or any other man) from taking advantage of his position as a celebrity. A real man should be better than this.
Once again, this type of attitude conveys the thought that Donald Trump can do no wrong. As long as he puts forth the types of policies that are approved of, he can do no wrong. Conservatism begs to be better than that.
George, I’ve refrained from engaging with you for a while since I don’t see you as open minded about Trump, so prove me wrong here. Can you tell me of anyone on here that has ever said, even once, said that Trump can do no wrong?
These straw-man arguments from folks who oppose Trump are what have so many of us frustrated. The intention seems to be to paint us as cultists, that we think he can do no wrong, etc… It’s simply not true. Donald Trump is a flawed human, like we all are, but on balance the policy achievements of his administration in just over one year have been good for the nation, certainly a 180 from policies we would have seen from Hillary. I do not look to the President for moral virtue, it’s not what the Founders had in mind and not how the job position is constructed.
The problem is the culture, the economy, and the government have gotten immoral. The Founders specifically said the people have to be moral–fear God, more or less–for their system to work. Personally, I blame the centralization and Keynesianism that got embedded under Woodrow Wilson. It causes all kinds of sociological grief because it robs power from individuals, and it makes honesty and productivity a sucker’s game. We are getting it in spades, now.
Trump is progress, on net, and in most ways, in other words. He’s uniquely better at tackling some issues. So far so good.
P.S. Who’s fault is this?
The first thing I need to say is that you have my permission to go back to not engaging with me. I do not take kindly to being insulted, and I will not put with it. First of all, I am the most fair minded, open-minded person you will ever know. And, if you don’t believe that, you have never read anything I’ve written, with a open heart.
Secondly, probably no one has ever written the words “Trump can no wrong”. Speaking of straw men, you do pretty good yourself. To say that Trump has flaws is to saying nothing. Even The Pope has flaws. We are fallen Men. It is the tenor of what people write that matters. Many Ricochetti will defend Trump in ways that not even he has thought of. This is not a good man. I like most of his policies, and have written so at nauseum. But he not good.
And, as one who hates Mona Charen, and wants her kicked off of Ricochet, you have no business talking about another’s open-mindedness.
As a foreigner I can say this.
Americans elect gods and call them President. Then they fall and Americans are shocked and find there gods were men all along.
Trump skipped to the fall part.
You guys just got to lighten up about your politicians. I have met enough of mine to never be impressed or shocked.
Trump has spent his entire life marketing himself. The Presidential race is one giant marketing campaign. His brand was better than Hillary’s. So he won.
Lighten up, Francis. There was absolutely nothing in Curt’s comment that could be taken for an insult by any reasonable man. Are you a reasonable man?
This is not worth answering, but I will anyway: He insulted me by saying that I not open-minded. The only kind of person who thinks that is not an insult is someone who himself enjoys insulting people, and goes around writing such “enlightening” comments as Lighten Up, Francis!
You got it.
I leave for a week and this is what greets my eyes. The usual.
1) Hefner and Trump had a long-standing relationship, 2) Hefner’s son Cooper can’t stand Trump, and 3) Hefner was a liberal and always donated to liberal causes and Democrat campaigns.
So is it possible they did this to make him look bad in the wake of the Stormy Daniels thing? I know I’ve said this before, but people need to get it through their heads that nothing you ever dig up about Donald Trump will ever matter. Just give it up already. If you think we’re going to read this and suddenly slap our foreheads like the guy in the V8 commercial, you’re mistaken.