\n<\/p>\n
At CNN\u2019s aptly named \u201cPolitical Hangover\u201d brunch on Sunday morning, in the lobby of The Line Hotel, there was\u00a0Poppy Harlow<\/strong>, chatting with\u00a0Dana Bash<\/strong>. There were\u00a0Wolf Blitzer<\/strong> and\u00a0Chris Wallace<\/strong>. And there were the climate protesters,\u00a0staging a sit-in<\/a> in front of the Bloody Mary station. Metro police were trying to talk them into leaving, and eventually they got up, waving goodbye as they chanted something about oil. Meanwhile,\u00a0Tiesto<\/strong> was preparing for a live DJ set. CNN CEO\u00a0Chris Licht<\/strong>\u00a0donned a Tiesto hat for the occasion.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was a fitting way to wind down the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner weekend, which is a mix of the serious and the frivolous, ranging from talk of grave matters to simply letting loose. Over the weekend, journalists championed the 1st Amendment, gave out awards and scholarships, and spoke out on behalf of missing and imprisoned colleagues. The press,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Joe Biden<\/strong>\u00a0on Saturday night, is a pillar \u201cof a free society, not the enemy.\u201d The president, as is customary, also\u00a0cracked jokes<\/a> in his dinner speech, with targets such as Fox News,\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/strong>, and\u00a0Elon Musk<\/strong>. The weekend also saw no shortage of selfies and media gossip\u2014the<\/a>\u00a0ousters<\/a> of\u00a0Tucker Carlson<\/strong> and\u00a0Don Lemon<\/strong> among the hot topics\u2014and jockeying to get into the top soirees. \u201cI have friends at NBC and they can\u2019t even get into the NBC afterparty,\u201d I overheard one party guest say during a whirlwind three days in the Washington media circus, which, yes, included a stop at the NBC event.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner is over,\u00a0was better during previous administrations<\/a>, or is at its core problematic\u2014due to the chummy interactions between journalists and government officials\u2014has been hashed out many times before. There seemed to be more parties than ever this past weekend, a tradition reemerging from both the Trump-era doldrums and the pandemic, which was still wreaking havoc on the festivities just last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leaving past debates aside, what I was most interested in this weekend was taking the pulse of the press corps amid a flurry of outlets\u2019 closures or cutbacks, and as the media girds for a likely rematch between President Biden and former President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>, who was\u00a0famously roasted<\/a> at this very dinner before his political rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n