‘Everyone’s scared’: little appetite for mirth before White House correspondents’ dinner

Annual event likely to prove gloomy affair amid Trump attacks on press and rise of Maga media ecosystem

It is no laughing matter. The annual dinner for journalists who cover the White House is best known for American presidents trying to be funny and comedians trying to be political. But this year's edition will feature neither.

Instead the event in a downtown Washington hotel on Saturday night will, critics say, resemble something closer to a wake for legacy media still trying to find an effective response to Donald Trump's divide-and-rule tactics and the rise of the Maga media ecosystem.