Radio and Television Correspondents' Association

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The Radio and Television Correspondents Association (RTCA) is an American journalism group best known for holding an annual dinner in Washington, D.C. every year,[1] not to be confused with the higher profile White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

Contents

[edit] Officers

The chair-elect of the association for 2008 is Heather Dahl of Fox News.[2]

[edit] RTCA Dinners

RTCA dinners are traditionally held in March at the Washington Hilton. As is the case with the similar but more exclusive WHCA Dinner,[3] the attention given to the Association's activities are far outweighed by the focus on the dinner's guest list and pre-dinner receptions and post-dinner parties hosted by various media organizations.[3][4][5]

Also as is true of the WHCA Dinner and Gridiron Club Dinner, the RTCA Dinner has been subject to criticism that it encourages journalists to engage in undue coziness with the political officials they are supposed to fairly cover, and also that the public spectacle of "playing footsie" with reporters' main subjects is bringing the political press into disgrace.[6]

[edit] Notable RTCA dinners

In 1983, the RTCA compiled a videotape of various bloopers made in the news, and even music videos about the news, entitled "Tapes of Wrath". A sequel, "Tapes of Wrath II", followed in 1991. In 1996, speaker Don Imus made coarse jokes about President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, which White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry termed "tasteless". [1]

During the 2004 dinner, President George W. Bush mocked himself in a slide show including images of him searching under furniture in the Oval Office for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which liberal commentator David Corn termed a "callous and arrogant display". [7]

In 2007, President George W. Bush attended the event for the third time [1], and JibJab premiered its latest satiric animation, "What We Call The News."[8]

[edit] Brief timeline of recent dinners

  • 2001: President Bush makes fun of his own grammar. [2]
  • 2002: No one from White House attends. [3]
  • 2003: Vice President Cheney jokes about President Bush's flight suit. [4]
  • 2004: President Bush jokes about WMD. Controversy erupts. [5]
  • 2005: Vice President Cheney talks about then recently deceased Pope John Paul II. [6]
  • 2006: Vice President Cheney jokes about hunting. [7]
  • 2007: "MC Rove" performs rap onstage.[9][10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Associated Press, A President walks into a journalists' dinner, March 29, 2007
  2. ^ Patrick Gavin, RTCA Update, Mediabistro.com FishbowlDC, December 18, 2006
  3. ^ a b Ana Marie Cox, Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, Time Magazine Swampland blog, March 29, 2007
  4. ^ Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, Yeas & Nays, The (Washington) Examiner, March 28, 2007
  5. ^ RTCA Field Report: Geraldo Came To Party, Jossip.com, March 29, 2007
  6. ^ Hamilton Nolan, Joke is on the press at annual DC dinners, PRWeek, April 3, 2007
  7. ^ MIA WMDs-For Bush, It's a Joke
  8. ^ "JibJab Debuts Video Lampooning News Media", Businesswire, March 29, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-17. 
  9. ^ C-SPAN, 63rd Annual Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner, March 28, 2007, rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/iraq/e032807_RTVCdinner.rm
  10. ^ Mike Allen, Rove Rap Sheet Brings Down House, The Politico, March 30, 2007

[edit] See also