New Yorker and Vanity Fair cancel White House Correspondents Dinner parties in Donald Trump’s first year

The dinner receives intense media attention in the nation's capital

The dinner is one of the highlights of the Washington social calendar (AP)

Every year the White House Correspondents Dinner and the parties surrounding it, are considered among the most important events on the Washington social calendar.

In recent years, there's been a rise in the number of A-list celebrities from Hollywood, the music industry and the business world attending, giving the event the same media attention and anticipation that has typically been reserved for the Oscars or the Emmys. It is often jokingly referred to as the ‘Nerd Prom’.

But that may be changing in the era of Donald Trump.

The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, two well-respected, left leaning publications, are both cancelling their parties associated with the event. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who has long fought with Mr Trump for decades, told the New York Times that the new president was the reason they were not taking part in the festivities this year.

“We’ve taken a break from the dinner in the past,” Mr Carter wrote, adding that he instead planned to spend the weekend fishing in Connecticut.

Vanity Fair’s after-party, most recently held at the French Ambassador’s residence, is a star-studded affair, often considered the crème de la crème of the dinner's soirees, and one of the most exclusive events of the weekend.

Natalie Raabe, a spokeswoman for the New Yorker, said it was is cancelling its kick-off party that it usually holds at the W Hotel before the Correspondents Dinner. Ms Raabe did not say why they were cancelling their party.

Instead, comedian Samantha Bee and others on the left will be holding an alternative event called “Not the White House Correspondents Dinner” on the same night as the dinner, scheduled for April 29th.

All these moves suggest that Mr Trump’s arrival in Washington is turning off Hollywood and the New York elite, the same people who showed up in droves to see President Obama at the event in the past. They also represent the bubbling tension between news organisations and an administration that has been obviously and outwardly unfriendly to the press.

The dinner itself is hosted annually by the White House Correspondents’ Association under the guise of celebrating press freedoms, to give scholarships to aspiring journalists and to pass out awards to certain reporters.

What the event is really about is an evening of jovial banter between politicians and the media.

The sitting president usually attends, (it’s on Mr Trump’s calendar at the moment but he has not publicly committed to attending) and the dinner features a comedian who roasts the press, politicians in the room and of course the president himself. The president is also given a chance to speak at the dinner and tell jokes of his own.