Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Pam Stevens has been trolling around Cleveland for a few weeks checking the scene for the GOP Convention where she’ll be handling the media since taking a short leave of absence from her job as Director of Media Affairs and Strategic Initiatives for the House Republican Conference. “Cleveland is fun,” she told Hollywood on the Potomac at the Kalorama home of Gloria Dittus.
“I can’t wait to have everyone come for the convention. The people of Cleveland are so excited and are the nicest people; plus great shopping, great restaurants – expensive manicures, that’s for sure – but it’s a fun city, good mid-western city with nice people, really nice. It’s colder there, but there’s the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and it’s just a pretty terrific city.” Seems that Stevens was on a reverse short leave of absence from Cleveland for the White House Correspondents’Association weekend. We crossed paths with Pam at the Dittus home where Gloria co-hosted the 3rd annual Washington Women in Journalism Awards reception with Roll Call Editor-in-Chief Melinda Henneberger. The event celebrated women journalists for their outstanding achievements.
Women in Journalism
Lynn Sweet, D.C. bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, was looking forward to the whole weekend: “actually the totality of the experience, not one party or one event. Obviously, I’m very interested in hearing what President Obama is going to say at his last WHCAD. It’ll be interesting to just look at what he addresses; I figure he’ll be funny no matter what, but it’s what the humor is that will be most interesting. This is a busy weekend and there’s a lot of things to look forward to, but as I said, it’s the totality of the experience that is my take away because in some ways the dinner is still a business dinner, a business networking occasion which is still very important today.”
Melinda Henneberger and Lynn Sweet
“I’m most looking forward to seeing President Obama at his last WHCAD,” Roll Call columnist Jonathan Allen told us. “I feel like the end of his term, generally speaking, has been a time for ‘Obama unplugged’ and I imagine jokes at this year’s dinner are going to be the best.” Allen was there at a previous dinner where Trump took the brunt of most jokes. “It wasn’t just one, it was a series of just … you know, it was uncomfortable in the room when he did that. I can’t imagine that Trump would want to sit through that again.” He didn’t. This year he was represented by his son Eric. We asked: “So, I guess we’re down to two candidates already in both parties, do you have any insight, by numbers, about Hillary versus Trump?” “I think anybody who wins their party’s nomination for President, a major party nomination for President, has a chance to win. I think it’s way too early to tell how the general election is going to turn out. There have been polls, but I don’t trust a poll taken during the primaries system up until the election.”
Jonathan Allen and Melinda Henneberger
“We’re lucky to have women who, in particular, stand out in their field for extraordinary journalism and the things that they do for their craft,” Gloria Dittus said before acknowledging the awardees. “Admittedly, we’re in the midst of one of the most interesting political years ever. I think we’re probably going to have a woman at the top of the ticket for the first time, so it’s quite appropriate that today we’re going to acknowledge these women who are leaders in their field of journalism, and at the same time have a woman at the top of the ticket. No matter who is selected at the ballot box in November, male or female, Democrat or Republican, I know that the women that we’re going to honor tonight will continue to set the standard among their peers for reporting and journalism.”
Awardee Dana Bash
“When I first moved to Washington many, many, many years ago,” Dittus added, “my first reads were always CQ because it was deep in policy, it was one of the publications that you had to read if you were going to be smart about politics and the policies that were behind everything, Roll Call always had their finger on the pulse and the combination of the two, along with The Economist, is a really fabulous, strong brand and we’re really honored that you partner with us for this.”
“We really did have so many amazing nominees for these awards,” said Henneberger, “and the first one I’m going to recognize might have the best job in journalism right now, which is covering the Republican field for CNN, Dana Bash. Dana has had an amazing year. She has moderated six debates already this cycle. She’s asked many memorable questions in debates and in interviews, including being the one to whom it fell to ask Donald Trump what about that comment about his big hands. She also, I think, was the first to recognize Mary Pat Christie’s facial performance while watching Donald Trump speak about Hillary and the woman card, and Dana said, on the air, ‘I think they call that the side eye.’ Over the years she’s broken many important stories. Before getting her current post, she covered both the White House and Congress for CNN. She won an unprecedented and amazing three Dirksen Awards for covering Congress, and she was the last person to interview Speaker John Boehner – and we all wish we had spoken to him today. She’s our outstanding broadcast journalist. CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash will receive the award for outstanding broadcast journalist, National Review Online editor at large Kathryn Lopez the award for outstanding periodical journalist, New York Times political editor Carolyn Ryan the outstanding newspapers/wire journalist award and The Lifetime Achievement award went to Susan Page of USA Today.
A look back at last year:
