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It's just us, Eugene Daniels, the president of the associations and an MSNBC animator, told his colleagues journalists at the start of the night.

The journalists who spoke of the platform highlighted the importance of the first amendment, collecting repeated ovations of the crowd in black tie. Lightness came in the form of clips for past years, when the presidents have always presented themselves and cracked on the press and themselves.

The crowd in hand on dinner, once the apex of the social calendar of the capital, is as much a tradition of Washington as the parts sponsored by the company around it. But while the media institutions struggle with an attack by President Trump who continued and threatened the television networks, prohibited the Associated Press for presidential events and upset the daily functioning of the White House press, the notion of celebration soaked in alcohol was particularly discordant.

The atmosphere and the reality is zero, said Jim Vandehei, journalist and director of the news who helped to create politico and then Axios, two pillars of the Beltway media.

No president presentNo actor to make fun of all of us, the television networks that clashed under pressure from the government, a large producer who stops on business interference and The sour public on the media And the government said Vandehei. Take advantage of the weekend!

It is true that, in recent days only, the 60 -minute chief has resigned while the owner of the CBSS considered a payment of several million dollars to settle a trial brought by President Trump, and the committee to protect journalists, a non -profit organization that helps journalists living under the autocrats, published a security notice For journalists who plan to visit the United States. And Friday afternoon, a few hours before the first wave of weekend festivals, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would assign journalists' journalists and forced their testimony in flight surveys.

Maybe journalists could use a moment or two to relax.

Our customers work so hard covering the today's non-stop news cycle, and once a year, we organize a big holiday weekend to honor them for their work, said Rachel Adler, head of the Creative Artists Agency, who represents television journalists on Friday like Andrea Mitchell and Audie Cornish and was the co-host of a private club in a private club Georgetown. Why would this year be different?

Tammy Haddad, an impressio of Washington whose Saturday in Saturday gardening took place tirelessly and well followed, said that for all tensions on access to the press and independence, the weekend was still a chance for the community. Some have chosen to stay away, but there are opportunities to make new connections and find common ground, she said. (Her guests understood the editor Tina Brown, chef Bobby Flay and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the recently sworn doctor to direct Medicare and Medicaid.)

However, the dinner of the correspondents itself carried a tenor more serious than the past years. Some of the most noisy applause came for AP journalists, which was involved in a legal struggle with the administration after Mr. Trump sought to restrict access to his journalists for having used the term Gulf of Mexico in his coverage.

Mr. Daniels promised his support for the AP and the voice of America, another point of sale which was the target of Mr. Trumps Contempt. Without an artist for the evening, Mr. Daniels was the speaker of honor, calling for journalistic solidarity.

What we are not is the opposition, he said. What we are not is the enemy of the people. And what we are not is the enemy of the state. He called on competitive and arrogant, but also human journalists, noting the effort that journalists make to ensure that specific information reaches the public.

In interviews, the best journalists from several media said it was almost impossible to convince celebrities and legislators to attend as guests. A journalist said that the list of people who rejected the invitations to join the table of publications were in the dozens.

It is a dinner that once attracted George Clooney and Steven Spielberg. On Saturday, it seemed that the most informed actor in the city was Jason Isaacs, the Englishman who played the father during the last edition of The White Lotus, and whose character spent the season to fantasize about a suicide murder.

Mark Leibovich, correspondent for the Atlantic, said that he had found refreshing to have a more concentrated evening on the act of reporting than a speech of actors.

However, he added, I would have liked that we could use the time we have saved to all of this to leave an hour earlier.

The association of correspondents represents hundreds of journalists who regularly cover the operation of the White House. Its autonomy has been undermined several times by the Trump administration, which broke the previous one by the selection at which the points of sale have access to the swimming pool which covers small presidential events and reported plans to shake the table of seats in the news room of James S. Brady. (For decades, the correspondent association supervises the swimming pool and the seats table.)

In February, the group announced that an actor, Amber Ruffin, the actress and Talk-Show host, would be the star dinners. Last month, the appearance of Ms. Ruffins was canceled. She had appeared on a podcast where she qualified the Trump administration as a sort of group of murderers.

Daniels said he wanted to make sure the emphasis was not on the division policy.

Ms. Ruffin has since Mocked from the group For the cancellation of his ensemble, Chipping: we have a free press so that we can be nice to the Republicans in fantasy dinners, this is what he said during the first amendment.

In previous years, especially in 2018, during Mr. Trumps, the first term, the press secretary of the White House attended the dinner and sat on the platform. Karoline Leavitt, Trumps, current press secretary, said that she had refused an invitation.

Friday, during an interview with Axios journalist Mike Allen, Ms. Leavitt was invited to describe the media in a word.

Exhausted, she said, with a smile.