After that huge pageant last night from the Washington Hilton with Conan O’Brien, President Obama and scads of celebs, guess what? It’s a tax free event. The White House Correspondents Association is a 501 (c) 3, a charitable organization. According to its most recent From 990, filed in February 2012, the WHCA pays its leader, Julia Whitson a little more than it gave away in scholarships to budding journalists in 2011. That was $107,279 for Whitson, and $100,500 for the scholarships. Their total assets at the end of 2011: $322,750.
The WHCA seems to finish every year in the red. In 2010 it was $35,800. In 2011, it was $8447. The 2011 WHCA actually somehow lost $50,735 according to the report. That’s the one hosted by Seth Meyers and had jokes about Donald Trump. “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm attended. (Where were all the “Mad Men” this year? And where was Trump?)
This year’s dinner, with its long guest lists of B level stars, had some unsuual bedfellows for politics. The notoriously anti-gay Fox News, for example, hosted “Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, “X Men” director Bryan Singer, and “X Men” star Sir Ian McKellen–all very gay. Fox News’s stand on gay marriage, etc, was probably not discussed. I’ve scoured the internet and haven’t had found any pictures of those guests with either Bill O’Reilly or Roger Ailes, either.
