SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

I’d never heard of Michelle Wolf until this weekend.  She made news at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner by making the following joke about Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye.” 

The right-wing outrage machine seized on the comment and claimed that Wolf was mocking Sanders’ physical appearance.  I have several thoughts, the first of which is:  bullshit.

The joke (whether you think it was funny or not) is obviously about the undeniable truth that Sanders lies a lot in her job as White House Press Secretary.  In the Trump Administration, lying is part of the job description.  Just ask her predecessor, Sean Spicer. 

It’s possible that for insiders – and the White House correspondents are by definition insiders – some small subset of the joke was about Sanders’ makeup choices.  But her makeup choices are entirely voluntary.  And as far as I’m concerned, that means they’re fair game for humor.  Sanders’ eye makeup is no different than Trump’s penchant for weird hair and long red ties. 

The Republican reaction is understandable.  Reprehensible, but understandable.  This is a proxy war, and Republicans are jumping on this because they haven’t had a chance to go on the attack in ages.  They’ll milk it as long as they can.

The press, however, have no such excuse.  By and large, they’ve reverted to type, cringing in the face of right-wing criticism and mumbling about a breach of civility. 

Another person I’d never heard of until this weekend, Matt Schlapp, declared that “journalists shouldn’t be the one to say the President or his spokesperson is lying.”  And again, I say, bullshit.  That’s exactly the job of journalists covering the White House.  If they can’t call out obvious lies, they’re not journalists, they’re propagandists – like Matt Schlapp, who’s the chairman of the American Conservative Union.  

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is an anachronism.  It was meant to demonstrate that the press and the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are basically on the same side.  In better times than these, that might be true.  But in the Trump era it can’t be true.

In show business terms, the White House Correspondents' Dinner is basically a "roast," like those Dean Martin/Don Rickles TV specials  of yesteryear.  Some of the most powerful people in the world show up and let comedians make fun of them for a couple of hours.  If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, for crying out loud.