Entertainment
How Journalists Sprung Into Action at White House Correspondents Dinner
When White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang announced Saturday night that the dinner would not resume following a shooting at the Washington Hilton, she pointed out how “when there is an emergency,” journalists “run to the crisis, not away from it.”
“I saw all of you reporting — and that’s what we do,” she said.
About an hour later, Jiang, who serves as CBS News’ senior White House correspondent, was seated in the front row of the White House briefing room — still wearing an evening gown — and questioning President Donald Trump about the incident.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a fun and festive Washington tradition — though not always the best look for the press. The dinner has come under scrutiny in recent years for the appearance of chumminess between journalists and the powerful people they cover. This year, many criticized the WHCA for inviting Trump to the First Amendment celebration given his assault on the press, and hundreds of journalists called on the group to confront him.
What will be remembered this year isn’t journalists clinking glasses, but swiftly moving into action during a crisis. It was jarring to watch events unfold on CNN as the lighthearted vibe before a commercial break shifted dramatically to breaking news, cutting back to the ballroom with images of armed Secret Service members on stage and the president no longer present.
“To be fully transparent with everyone, we do not know what is happening in there,” said anchor John Berman. “All we know is there were loud sounds.” Berman turned to Brian Stelter, who used his phone to broadcast from inside, relaying scenes from the chaotic situation. “I heard a loud sound,” said Stelter, thinking it may have been plates crashing. “You are our eyes and ears,” Berman told him.
Next, Kaitlan Collins, speaking live on her cell from the ballroom, was told by a Secret Service agent that there was a shooter in the lobby and that the suspect was dead, not apprehended — highlighting the uncertainty of initial reports as details emerged in real-time.
Wolf Blitzer provided a harrowing account of gunfire while making his way to the bathroom and being protected by an officer who brought him down to the ground. “It was just a very, very frightening moment for me personally and for everyone who was nearby.”
“We are lucky that we have a reporter like you who happened to bear witness to what happened,” Berman told Blitzer. “You have given us the most details we have had to date as an eyewitness to this event.”
While Collins and others headed to the White House for Trump’s briefing, journalists, including TheWrap’s Corbin Bolies, offered perspective on social media. Bolies attended several pre-parties at the Hilton before heading to Substack’s party, which was being held nearby during the dinner. Reporters began hammering out stories.
“If you want to know what journalists do in an emergency — even one that threatens their immediate safety — they hunker down and bring you the news,” Politico’s Steven Overly wrote alongside photos of his colleagues typing away on the floor.
C-SPAN chief Sam Feist later told Bolies that cameraman Mohaimen Aljasheme never stopped filming.
“He realized that there had not been a gunshot in the room, and he just continued to do his job,” Feist said. “So much of what we saw in the immediate aftermath was from that camera, that C-SPAN photographer, because he kept showing what was happening.”
Still, there will be intense scrutiny now on what led up to the shooting, and the security apparatus at the dinner.
I’ve covered the WHCD at the Hilton many times, from the media pre-parties scattered throughout the hotel’s salons to the dinner itself. The Washington Hilton is a massive complex, with more than 1,000 rooms and guests who may have nothing to do with the event.
In my experience, anyone can enter the hotel, and people often linger in the lobby to gawk at celebrities or familiar faces from TV news. You need an invitation to access the salons, where pre-parties are held, and must then pass through a magnetometer to enter the ballroom downstairs.
The show will go on. Trump has said he wants the dinner rescheduled within the next month. But the sprawling, free-flowing atmosphere that has long defined Washington media’s biggest night is likely to be curtailed.
DC dispatch
Everyone attending Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner expected President Donald Trump’s first appearance as president to make for an unprecedented night. No one could’ve predicted how it would turn out.
The shooting upstairs at the Washington Hilton led the Secret Service to whisk the president off the ballroom stage and sent the dinner’s hundreds of guests ducking under tables. Many journalists — including CBS News’ Jiang — got back to work reporting, changing the night’s celebratory dynamic to one consumed by professionalism.
The chaotic scene unsurprisingly drove the conversation at after-parties that continued despite the dinner ending abruptly and raised questions about the security apparatus at the hotel, which has traditionally been the site of the annual dinner — as well as the location where Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
Read Bolies’ full dispatch: What I Witnessed on a Chaotic Night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Post-shooting presser
President Donald Trump called the suspected shooter at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner a “sick person” and praised law enforcement for apprehending him.
Trump spoke to reporters in the White House briefing room just hours after the annual dinner was shut down following a shooting at the Washington Hilton that caused chaos inside the ballroom. The president and other guests on stage were immediately removed from the scene, as journalists inside scrambled for information.
“This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press,” said Trump, who noted that “in a certain way it did” as people in the room were “totally unified.”
The suspect — later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California— was said to have been armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives.
Inside McClatchy’s AI backlash
During an hourlong staff meeting last month, McClatchy’s vice president of local news Eric Nelson pitched what he called “a powerful addition to our toolbox.”
Nelson was promoting the company’s new “content scaling agent,” an AI summarization tool powered by Anthropic’s Claude, which he said can help reporters find “new audiences, angles and entry points.”
“Journalists who embrace and experiment with this tool are going to win,” Nelson told the group, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting. “Journalists who are defiant will fall behind.Bottom line: We need more stories and we need more inventory.”
Since reporting earlier this month how McClatchy’s new AI tool has angered staffers across several of its Pulitzer Prize-winning newsrooms, TheWrap has obtained new details about how the tool works from the March 17 company meeting, including screenshots of the tool, and insight into how management is pitching it to employees and responding to reporters’ concerns about adding their bylines to AI-assisted articles.
Read Corbin Bolies’ full piece here: ‘More Stories, More Inventory’: Inside the Backlash to McClatchy’s AI News Tool | Exclusive
Patel vs. the press
It’s been a dizzying week on the Kash Patel media beat. The FBI director sued The Atlantic for $250 million over Sarah Fitzpatrick’s report on his alleged extensive drinking and concerns inside the government about his performance on the job.
“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” the magazine said in response.
That defamation suit was filed as a federal judge dismissed Patel’s earlier suit against former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi, who said on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” that Patel frequented nightclubs more than the FBI’s headquarters — comments the judge deemed “rhetorical hyperbole.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that the FBI began investigating its reporter, Elizabeth Williamson, after she wrote about Patel allegedly using bureau resources for personal use, leading Patel to blast the “baseless” Times on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show.
I spoke with Molly Jong-Fast on “Fast Politics” about Patel’s suit — and other political media topics — and the challenge of proving actual malice in defamation suits.
But I also recommend Hanna Rosin’s interview with Fitzpatrick on “Radio Atlantic,” as the latter details her reporting process on the Patel story.
“I stand by every single word of this report,” Fitzpatrick said. “We were very diligent. We were very careful. It went through multiple levels of editing, review, care.”
Get to know Dasha Burns
Someone joked to Dasha Burns recently that she was “the Marco Rubio of Politico,” a reference to the Secretary of State’s many jobs across the federal government — and the countless memes it’s spawned.
“I wonder when the memes will start coming out,” Burns, 34, told TheWrap.
Starting next month, Burns will become Politico’s first global anchor, on top of serving as White House bureau chief, Playbook’s chief correspondent and host of a weekly talk series, “The Conversation.”
Burns has morphed into Politico’s first true attempt at molding a journalist into a creator-like figure, one that comes as the nearly 20-year-old outlet tries to step up its video and audio output.
Check out Bolies’ piece: Dasha Burns Brings a Creator Mindset to Politico: ‘On Your TV, In Your Ear, In Your Inbox’
Also on TheWrap
CBS News’ loss is MS NOW’s gain: the cable network first hired Shawna Thomas, the highly regarded former executive producer of “CBS Mornings,” as its new political editor, and then landed Kabir Khanna as director of elections and analytics.
As the midterms loom, Brian Carovillano, MS NOW’s senior vice president of news standards and partnerships, said the pair will work together “to ensure our show teams and reporting bureaus have access to the highest-quality election data and projections.”
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On my radar
“If I Tried to Escape, I Would Be Killed” (Shelly Kittleson, The Atlantic)
“Tony Dokoupil Is the Face of the Bari Weiss Revolution at CBS News. Will He Survive It?” (Aidan McLaughlin, Vanity Fair)
“The Billionaire Trying to Build the ‘Next Great Washington Newsroom’” (Alexandra Bruell, The Wall Street Journal)
“ChatGPT and Claude Will Be a Force in Elections. Nobody Knows What to Do About It.” (Alex Roarty, NOTUS)
“It Was Just a Podcast. Now, It’s Kelce Land.”(Jessica Testa, The New York Times)
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Maisie Williams knows a thing or two about witchcraft beyond her work in “Practical Magic 2,” admitting she once hired a digital mystic.
Specifically, at Wednesday’s European Premiere for “Practical Magic 2,” the “Game of Thrones” alum shared that she once hired an “Etsy witch” to assist in her career.
“I paid an Etsy witch to give me a role. To help me manifest a role in a movie,” she said to British Vogue during a red carpet interview. “And she told me some things that I had to say every night.”
Per Williams, she followed the online spellcaster’s instruction, as she said the words “every night.” However, the spell didn’t work, with Williams quipping, “It didn’t happen!”
While Williams may not be sold on the Etsy witch industry, the actress confessed that she does partake in superstitions.
“I don’t like to walk over the three consecutive drains,” she said, referring to the British superstition that it’s bad luck. “I don’t swear by it. I’ve done it. Listen, I’ve partaken. But it makes me feel uncomfortable every time, even if I sometimes end up walking into ongoing traffic. I just have to. I stick with that one.”
She added: “It makes me feel like everything is going to be fine. It makes me feel like I have control over the uncontrollable, which I don’t.”
Watch Williams’ red carpet interview below.
Williams stars opposite Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Joey King in the sequel to the 1998 romantic fantasy “Practical Magic.” She steps into the role of Antonia Owens, one of Bullock’s onscreen daughters, taking over the part from the original film’s child star, Alexandra Artrip.
In an August Instagram post, Artrip shared that she “retired from acting after the film,” but voiced her support for her onscreen sister, Evan Rachel Wood, who did not return to “Practical Magic 2” to reprise her role of Kylie Owens.
“Practical Magic 2” opens exclusively in theaters on Sept. 11.
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After parting ways with WNBC, longtime investigative journalist Sarah Wallace wants to clear the air: She’s not retiring.
Instead, the seasoned journalist revealed in a direct-to-camera social media video on Friday that her position was entirely eliminated from the company, citing the changing media landscape as the cause for her career change.
“As we know, the media landscape around the country has changed, and WNBC made the difficult financial decision not to renew my contract and to actually eliminate my position as an investigative reporter,” Wallace said. “I had 11 great years there, and they have been fabulous to me. I’m also grateful to all of you who have reached out with your support: your calls, your messages, your emails.”
In the video, Wallace looked at the bright side of the situation, saying that she will now be able to dive even deeper into investigation outside of WNBC. However, she, like many journalists who have been laid off, now faces the struggle of finding the best channel through which to continue her work.
“Now, I am able to focus full-time on my passion of investigative reporting: crime, corruption, wherever it leads, and I am just now looking for the right platform to do it,” Wallace shared. “You’re going to be seeing more of me, and I want to hear from you, so I’ll keep you posted.”
You can watch the full video below.
Wallace’s story is becoming all too familiar in the media world, as mass layoffs and restructurings continue across the industry. In the past 10 days, BuzzFeed cut the HuffPost National Desk to three reporters and Vox laid off four employees after being acquired by James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and. In July, BuzzFeed laid off 35% of its workforce, while Patreon laid off 20%.
These losses have hit the entertainment sector as well. Despite the massive success of “Toy Story 5,” Disney let go of hundreds of staffers in July, with Pixar hit particularly hard. Annapurna similarly laid off 30 staffers on Wednesday due to “shifting market conditions.” In 2025, entertainment and media layoffs were up 18%, with over 17,000 jobs cut across television, film, broadcast, news and streaming in the first 11 months of the year.
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Summer is rapidly coming to an end, even if the weather doesn’t feel like it just yet, and that means it’s back to school for many. To prepare, some good back-to-school movies might help.
Whether you’re headed back to the classroom yourself — either a student or maybe a teacher — or just have a loved one getting back into the swing of things, a new school year can be daunting. So, for this list, we picked some films that can remind you how fun it is, while maybe teaching some good lessons along the way.
Here are five back-to-school movies to stream in August.
Grease
Technically, “Grease” takes place over the course of an entire school year, but it does start at the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. Danny Zuko literally says (very cheekily, thanks to John Travolta understanding the assignment) “it’s only the beginning” at the start of the film.
“Grease” will hit extra hard for any youngins who found a summer romance, as it stars Olivia Newton-John and Travolta as somewhat star-crossed lovers, who have to figure out how to navigate life when they run into their summer fling at school. Can they even exist together as a couple when they get back to real life and their usual friends?
Granted, “Grease” doesn’t send an awesome message when Sandy (Newton-John) changes nearly everything about herself in order to keep her man and friends as she heads into the next summer. Maybe just turn it off before you get to that part, and pretend it ends just before the “Look at Me I’m Sandra Dee” reprise (though that reprise is gorgeous).
“Grease” is streaming now on Pluto TV and Paramount+.
Kicking and Screaming
Just about every cinephile knows the name Noah Baumbach, and his debut film, “Kicking and Screaming” is a perfect back-to-school movie if you want to buff up your knowledge of his work, or just enjoy a good filmmaker’s start.
“Kicking and Screaming” follows a group of college grads who, for various reasons, decided to stick around their college town instead of moving on with their lives. Now it’s a new school year, and they spend the fall semester figuring things out (or … not) while navigating situations and dynamics they no longer relate to.
It’s a beloved entry in ’90s slacker culture cinema, and boasts a stacked cast of indie darlings, including Parker Posey, Chris Eigeman, Eric Stoltz, Cara Buono and Josh Hamilton.
“Kicking and Screaming” is currently streaming on YouTube, Tubi, The Roku Channel, PLEX and Fandango.
Back to School
I mean, it’s hard to have a “Best Back-To-School Movies” list and not have “Back to School” on it. A little literal? Perhaps. But it counts!
The film stars Rodney Dangerfield as a wealthy but uneducated father, who goes to college in solidarity with his discouraged son, Jason (Keith Gordon). But here, he learns that money can’t actually take care of everything. We’ve seen plenty of similar plotlines since — at least, in the “parents go back to school and learn how different it is” genre — but this is one of the best.
It also stars a young Robert Downey Jr., which is always an added bonus.
“Back to School” is now streaming on Prime Video and Philo.
Mean Girls
When joining a new school, it’s important to figure out the cliques pretty fast, and figure out who you can trust. Otherwise, things can get messy.
This is a lesson that Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) learns pretty immediately on her first day at North Shore High. She’s just started going to public school, after being homeschooled for her entire life. Things in a real school work differently, she soon learns, but it’s not unlike the jungle environment she grew up in.
“Mean Girls” is just a classic, and may be a good reminder to your kid not to be the Regina George of their class. And maybe it’ll encourage them to join mathletes, who knows.
“Mean Girls” is currently streaming on Pluto TV, Peacock and Paramount+.
Monsters University
It’s rare that a sequel that’s actually a prequel is as good as the original, but such is the case for “Monster’s University,” and it just so happens to be a great back-to-school movie.
The animated film gives fans the story of how Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) first met and became best friends. And it turns out, it was in college. At the start of their first year at Monster’s University, both are determined to be great scarers, but Sulley is a slacker and Mike is just … not that scary looking.
Though they initially butt heads, they eventually work together to help each other out, creating the bond that eventually leads to “Monsters Inc.” It’s a college story, sure, but it’s Disney and Pixar, which means it works for kids of all ages, headed to a new school year and looking to make friends.
“Monsters University” is streaming on Disney+.
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