The New York Times
[ ] rsquo; refined sensibilities were so outraged that its Washington bureau chief, Dean Baquet, announced that the Times, as an organization, would no longer support the dinner. Two of the Times rsquo; best columnists, David Carr and Frank Rich, had so much fun beating up on the dinner that if I were Baquet, rather than give up on this copy-generating franchise, I would make all my columnists attend.
Baquet and other critics say that the dinner feeds the public perception that the Washington press is way too cozy with the people it covers and there is a nutty subset of this that believes if the press hadn rsquo;t been so busy going to dinner with Bush the Iraq war would never have happened.
Oh please.
ldquo;Cozy rdquo; is when the Times rsquo; Washington bureau chief huddles with the secretary of Defense at a small, private gathering in Georgetown, not being one of 2,000 people milling around in a room the size - and noise level - of the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Columnist Christopher Hitchens said this year rsquo;s dinner ldquo;was disgraceful, so lame and mediocre that it is beyond parody.
rdquo; In truth, it wasn rsquo;t one of our better dinners - lame, yes, disgraceful, no - but what was so great about this was Hitchens was on his way to host employer Vanity Fair rsquo;s much sought-after post-party party - at his house. No, not beyond parody.
Most people go for the same reason I do, to see old friends, mostly journalists but political and government types too, whom I don rsquo;t see often enough, some of them only at this dinner.
Some years ago, the custom began of inviting high-profile guests from Hollywood, sports or more notorious pursuits. I rsquo;m not much of a celebrity stalker but one year I did sit in front of Ozzy Osbourne.
Every time the TV cameras were on Ozzy, which was often, there I was and many people saw me.
I rsquo;m told I was well behaved. At one point, Ozzy stood on his chair. He looked a good bet to come crashing down on the table but successfully dismounted.
Had he fallen, I probably would have missed it.
News RSS