‘The Press Is Killing Themselves,’ Ari Fleischer Says

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, “the real problem here” with Saturday night’s controversial White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner is that “the press is killing themselves,” and “they just don’t get it.”

Fleischer, who served in former President George W. Bush’s administration, rebuked the WHCA for selecting comedian Michelle Wolf to deliver the evening’s roasts during a nearly 20-minute long speech.

With White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on the dais only a few feet away from her, and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway in the audience, Wolf proceeded to insult all women of President Donald Trump’s administration, in a profanity-laden spiel that earned her an intense post-dinner backlash from outside as well as inside the media.

“The real problem here is the press is killing themselves, and they just don’t get it,” Fleischer said Monday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.” “They’re an industry in decline, and they’re in decline because half of America — the Republicans and conservative half — just doesn’t trust them.”

“Evenings like this just make it worse. And the press still doesn’t understand how bad last night was,” Fleischer added.

As a result, many journalists distanced themselves from Wolf and the WHCA’s choice, and some urged the association to apologize to Sanders.

Lee Habeeb, vice president of content for Salem Radio Network and host of “Our American Stories,” told host Laura Ingraham that Wolf’s “vile” and “repulsive” jokes were aimed mostly at women in the Trump administration

“It was like a public shaming. Just disgraceful,” Habeeb, also a contributor at LifeZette, told Ingraham. “Ninety-two percent of the jokes were aimed at Republicans and 92 percent of the journalists are Democrats. And a lot of Americans are starting to see journalists as an arm of the Democratic Party. That’s really the problem.”

Fleischer said the media “did this,” insisting that the Democratic Party wasn’t solely responsible for Wolf’s diatribe.

“The Democratic Party loves these dinners because they like to laugh at these jokes,” Fleischer said. “How much on earth did they pay this comedian for this, at a time when newsrooms are going broke and laying people off? How much did they lay out for all the entertainment, the lavishness?”

“This is not what the press is supposed to be about, and that’s why the press is distancing themselves — especially from the blue-collar workers who elected Donald Trump, people [whose story] the Democrats and the press never saw … prior to 2016,” Fleischer said. “This is the press’s greatest problem. They are so disconnected from their readers and their viewers.”

Related: No Apology for Sarah Sanders, but Media Group Shuns Michelle Wolf

Ingraham said that the “D.C. media elites” have “confirmed their bias” against Trump and conservatism “by choosing Wolf as their avatar.”

“This revealing episode has shown the American people the hateful intolerance of the press corps and those we trust to cover the news,” Ingraham said. “It will take a long time to prove their objectivity after this heinous display.”

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, attended the WHCA dinner with his wife, White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp. The two got up and left the dinner as Wolf tore into Sanders and Conway. Schlapp blamed Wolf and the press for the brutal treatment of Sanders.

“They bullied her, they went after her, they tried to mock her, and the American people watched. And guess what? It was probably a good night for the conservative movement, but I still think it’s a disgusting display of the press’s being biased,” Schlapp said.

“And I think what the American people saw last night is exactly why they hate the D.C. liberal media elite,” Schlapp added.

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.