Greeting! Journalism’s darkest night: Friday night’s rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner represented one of the lowest moments I’ve ever seen in the journalism profession.  The plug should have been pulled at least a month before the event, as headliner Trump widened his brazen attacks on the press.  Apparently the White House Correspondents’ Association had no plan in place to push back against Trump once he began hurling insults and slurs at the audience composed mainly of White House journalists. The press sat there silently. They should have walked out. Instead they let Trump walk all over them and anyone of note who has opposed him. You can see Trump's entire 65-minute speech here. Worth noting:  Here’s a list I compiled of the people Trump slimed as I watched horrified in real time: Bruce Springsteen, Chris Christie, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (who he called the governor of Chicago), Adam Schiff, Rosie O’Donnell, Kaitlan Collins, Jake Tapper, Gavin Newsom, Ilhan Omar, Liz Warren, Jack Smith, Chuck Schumer and James Talarico...Unhinged: In the last 24 hours, Trump has uploaded almost 50 disturbing Truth Social posts.  If one of your relatives engaged in that burst of anti-social online behavior, you’d be preparing for a mental health intervention about now. I’m curious about who helps Trump with these posts. Who creates the politically dark and disjointed AI images? Who frames the messaging like this one about himself: The Man Who Saved America. It appears as if there's a somewhat coordinated operation behind the posts, but the American public knows so little about it....Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the federal government’s Covid response, wrote a diary during the  pandemic.  It’s available online here.  The diary was released by the Senate Homeland Security Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)... If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! Dictionary alert: In a NY Times column this week, conservative pundit Bret Stephens used these insulting adjectives to describe Pete Hegseth: oleaginous (having oily properties), turgescent (becoming inflated), insufferable (not to be endured), and bombastic (speech or writing marked by exaggeration). His fellow columnist Frank Bruni called Hegseth unctuous (smug). All descriptions are on-the-nose perfect. Thank you Merriam-Webster and Stephens/Bruni. Worth noting: I still refer to the SecDef as “Hairgel” Hegseth although I’m considering renaming him Mr. T after his testosterone edict earlier this month... Clever right-wing headline of the week, courtesy of the Washington Examiner: “The Hanging of an Iranian Activist Exposes a Regime at the End of Its Rope”... Required Reading: Vanity Fair’s Graham Platner and the Undoing of the Consultant Class, by Maria Comella, former key staff member to Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie.  Key line: “There is a wayward consultant class that will back anyone to win because winning achieves personal ambitions for power and money”...Weekend Watch: The best drama of the weekend just might be tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which raises money to support First Amendment scholarships. It is also raising eyebrows about how Trump can be spotlighted and applauded in a room full of journalists he despises.  Trump's speech tonight is expected to lash out against the press. But will the journalists in the room push back against the Trump’s remarks? Will they applaud?  Boo? Walk out? The festivities begin at 8 p.m. EDT and can be seen live on C-SPAN (and its website) and streamed on USA Today’s YouTube Channel.  The event was rescheduled after a gunman stormed the dinner in April before Trump had a chance to speak...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard