--- title: Correspondents' Dinner: Woodward and Bernstein Will Speak description: Donald Trump may be skipping the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but famous journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein will speak canonical: https://time.com/4730173/white-house-correspondents-dinner-woodward-bernstein/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-07T00:25:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:52:34.474Z article:section: Politics og:title: The White House Correspondents' Dinner Will Feature Woodward and Bernstein og:description: The legendary journalists hope to focus on the importance of reporting og:url: https://time.com/4730173/white-house-correspondents-dinner-woodward-bernstein/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cd2c19043901467/6988c1cfbc6cfc9f523e0c9b/bob-woodward-carl-bernstein-washington-post-reporters.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Carl Bernstein And Bob Woodward In New York City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The White House Correspondents' Dinner Will Feature Woodward and Bernstein twitter:description: The legendary journalists hope to focus on the importance of reporting twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cd2c19043901467/6988c1cfbc6cfc9f523e0c9b/bob-woodward-carl-bernstein-washington-post-reporters.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner Will Feature Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Apr 7, 2017 12:25 AM UTC  Journalists Carl Bernstein (L) and Bob Woodward (R), whose reporting on the Watergate incident won a Pulitzer Prize, making phone calls on June 17, 1974 in New York City. Journalists Carl Bernstein (L) and Bob Woodward (R), whose reporting on the Watergate incident won a Pulitzer Prize, making phone calls on June 17, 1974 in New York City.Waring Abbott—Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Apr 7, 2017 12:25 AM UTC President Donald Trump may be skipping the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this year, but famous journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein will present journalism awards and speak at the event, the [Washington _Post_ reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/04/06/this-years-white-house-correspondents-dinner-might-be-low-on-glitz-but-woodward-and-bernstein-are-speaking/?utm%5Fterm=.d58495bb36fa). In a typical year, the White House Correspondents’ Association brings in a celebrity entertainer to headline the dinner, and that announcement is usually made months in advance. But this year, no such announcement has been made. The [adversarial relationship](http://time.com/4710456/donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/?iid=sr-link9) between President Donald Trump and the press had many feeling ambivalent about the typically glitzy dinner since November. Many news organizations decided they would not attend and celebrities began [calling for a boycott](https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2017/02/08/calls-emerge-for-boycott-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner/hpxIECyfBGu8dHbZYOtcIL/story.html) of the dinner. Trump said he [would not attend](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/us/politics/trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-spicer.html), and the White House staff decided to skip the dinner along with him. Now, the correspondents’ association seems to be billing the evening as a toned-down affair that will focus on the journalism the dinner was always supposed to highlight. Woodward and Bernstein won’t be filling in for the usual celebrity joke-teller, according to the _Post_, the paper where they broke the famous Watergate scandal that won them a Pulitzer Prize and helped bring down Richard Nixon_._ “I hope not,” Woodward told the _Post_ about filling in on the joke front. “I think having two old guys like Carl and me will be enough comedy.” Their remarks will focus on “the First Amendment and the importance of aggressive but fair reporting,” he added. 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