Gavin: WHCD An ‘Orgy of Self-Celebration’

Journalist Patrick Gavin, who is director of “Nerd Prom: Inside Washington’s Wildest Week,” a film about the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, dubbed the event a “huge, sort of, orgy of self-celebration” during CNN’s special coverage of the event.

Gavin said, “if you are somebody outside the Beltway, outside of the Acela Corridor watching this, you’re very much looking on-camera and you are seeing a town that is very impressed with itself, that’s very enamored with itself, and you see big business viewing this as probably the single best opportunity to lobby Washington. And if you are those people for whom the American Dream is just out of reach, you’re looking at that saying ‘those are the people who are supposed to be taking care of me, those are the people who are supposed to help me out?’ And also just ‘how out of sync are their priorities?’ When here’s our biggest night, just a huge, sort of, orgy of self-celebration, and then people outside of the Beltway, their viewpoint of Washington is that you’ve got nothing to celebrate.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett