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Gridiron Club

Not to be confused with The Gridiron Club (Oxford University).

The Gridiron Club is the oldest and most selective journalistic organization in Washington, D.C.

Gridiron Club and Foundation
FormationJanuary 24, 1885; 139 years ago (1885-01-24)
TypeNonprofit
36-4643320
Location
  • Washington, D.C.
Membership
65[1][2]
President[3]
Dan Balz [3]
former president[4]
Al Hunt[4][5]
historian
George E. Condon Jr.[6]

History

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"an elitist social club of sixty print journalists" — Hedrick Smith, Power Game: How Washington Works February 1988 Random House ISBN 9780394554471[7]

Frank A. De Puy (1854–1927) was one of several who met January 24, 1885, at the Welcker's Hotel in Washington, D.C. – 721 15th Street, N.W., between New York Avenue and H Street – to form the Gridiron Club. De Puy was the last surviving founder of the club.[8]

Its 65 active members represent major newspapers, news services, news magazines, and broadcast networks. Membership is by invitation only and was historically almost exclusive to prominent newspaper men, including newspaper Washington bureau chiefs.[9]

For most of its history, the Club bylaws excluded women from becoming members or even guests at its annual dinner.[10][11] Although the National Press Club began admitting women in 1971, the Gridiron was reluctant to follow suit. Women were first permitted as guests in 1972: several prominent women including several members of Congress, Coretta Scott King, and Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, were invited.[11]

The Gridiron Club elected and admitted the first woman journalist members in 1975: Helen Thomas of United Press International and Frances Lewine of the Associated Press.[10] Helen Thomas would become the club's first woman president in 1993.[12]

Eventually, the club began expanding beyond print journalism to include media figures such as Tim Russert of NBC News, Bob Schieffer of CBS News, Mara Liasson of National Public Radio, and Judy Woodruff of PBS.[9]

The club merged with its charitable arm, the Gridiron Foundation, in 2008 to form the Gridiron Club and Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The Club and Foundation make annual charitable contributions and provide scholarships to a number of journalistic organizations and colleges, including the University of Maryland, George Washington University, and Norwich University.[13]

Officers

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The presidency of the club rotates annually. Carl Leubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News served as president in 2008, and Susan Page of USA Today in 2011, making them the first married couple to have each served as Gridiron president.[9] Chuck Lewis of Hearst Newspapers served in 2013. Tom DeFrank served in 2022.[14]

Gridiron Club Dinner

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The annual Gridiron Club Dinner is all off-the-record.[7][1] and traditionally features the United States Marine Band,[15] along with remarks by the President of the United States and satirical musical skits by the club members, and by the representatives of both political parties. The skits and speeches by the politicians are expected to "singe not burn", be self-deprecating or otherwise sharply comedic.[9]

Through 2020, every U.S. president since 1885 except Grover Cleveland has spoken at the dinner.[16] (President Barack Obama attended the 2011 dinner after missing both the 2009 and 2010 dinners.[17] In addition, he sang as a senator in 2006.)[18] Bill and Hillary Clinton have both spoken at Club dinners,[19] and the 2008 dinner marked the sixth time that President George W. Bush attended during his presidency.[9] The 2013 dinner was the 125th Gridiron Club and Foundation Dinner, but technically only the fifth Club and Foundation dinner (following the 2008 merger of the Club and the Foundation into one entity).[20]

The dinner is held in the spring, usually in March. Between 1945 and 2006, the dinner was held at the Capital Hilton. In November 1967, the club held its dinner and skits in Williamsburg, Virginia, outside Washington. In 2007, it moved to the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel.[9] It is one of the few remaining large-scale, white-tie affairs in Washington.[21]

In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt held a "Gridiron Widows' party" in the East Room of the White House for Labor Secretary Frances Perkins and those women whose husbands attended the Gridiron Club Dinner, as her first protest against Gridiron exclusion of women and by 1935, the annual event had grown into a "full-blown imitation".[22]

Until 2011, the Gridiron Club and Foundation's annual show was strictly invitation only.[23]

In 2011, the Gridiron Club and Foundation's annual show offered invites through the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C. for a Sunday afternoon post-dinner reception and performance, for March 13 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., one day after the dinner.[23]

In 2017, the Gridiron Club and Foundation's annual show sold up to five tickets to the National Press Club members at $70 each, held 5 March 2017 in the Washington Renaissance Hotel, 999 Ninth Street NW, with a reception that began at 2 p.m. and the reprise (show) that began at 3 p.m. and ended at 5 p.m.[24] It claims to offer a neutral ground on which political operatives, members of the press and elected officials can break bread together.[9]

The Gridiron Club Dinner has been subject to criticism that it encourages journalists to engage in undue coziness with the political officials they are supposed to fairly cover, and also that the public spectacle of "playing footsie" with reporters' main subjects is bringing the political press into disgrace.[25] This is also true of the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner.

In 1970, after the press's "sophomoric" skits Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew performed Dixie to the ire of the one black attendee.[26]

At the 2007 dinner, columnist Robert Novak impersonated Vice President Dick Cheney while satirizing the Scooter Libby case, which Novak helped initiate.[25][27]

President Barack Obama attended the 2011, 2013,[28] and 2015 Gridiron Club Dinners.[29] President Donald Trump attended and addressed the 2018 Gridiron Club Dinner.[30]

The Gridiron Dinner was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 dinner on April 2 became a COVID superspreader event when at least 72 people tested positive, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.[31][32] Proof of vaccination was required for entry, and no cases of serious illness were reported as resulting from the dinner.[33][34][35][36]

Gridiron Club Dinner Remarks in the Press

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Reporters in the audience do file stories live, but the event's visuals and sounds are not recorded for publishing.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/03/dcs-gridiron-club-on-the-griddle-again-158827 [bare URL]
  2. ^
  3. ^ a b https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/03/17/cringe-at-the-gridiron-and-on-the-sunday-shows-00147469 [bare URL]
  4. ^ a b https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/03/07/the-gridiron-menu-a-buffet-of-guffaws/31d11783-6d7c-443b-9fc6-5ef5ae302852/ [bare URL]
  5. ^ "Dick Cheney's Gridiron Remarks - Washington Examiner". 7 March 2004.
  6. ^ a b *The Gridiron Club, explained Political Theater Podcast, Episode 283, rollcall.com
  7. ^ a b "WashingtonPost.com: Nixon's Piano". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  8. ^ "Frank A. De Puy Dies; Old Newspaper Man" (obituary), Brooklyn Union, April 6, 1927, p. 8A (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Glass, Andrew (April 1, 2007). "Cheney Yuks It Up With the Press". The Politico. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  10. ^ a b "In Memoriam: Frances Lewine, 1921-2008". Journalism and Women Symposium. March 12, 2010. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021. ...the women in Washington turned their sights on another institution, the Gridiron Club, once described by Harrison Salisbury of The New York Times as "an assembly of troglodytes." Nonetheless, it held a dinner each year, then as now, spoofing national leaders and attended by many of those leaders. But women were shut out.
  11. ^ a b Ritchie, Donald A. (2005). Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199839094. Members voted 24 to 17 to permit women as guests but not as members. In 1972, invitation went out to Mrs. Nixon, members of Congress, Katharine Graham, and Coretta Scott King.
  12. ^ Sperling, Godfrey (April 6, 1993). "The Guests Who Almost Did Not Come". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved November 7, 2021. The 108th renewal of the Gridiron's white-tie dinner was particularly eventful: Helen Thomas, White House correspondent for United Press International, presided over the gathering as the club's first woman president.
  13. ^ "Gridiron Foundation Establishes Five Journalism Scholarships at UM". Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Archived from the original on 2003-04-21. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  14. ^ Zhao, Christina; Roecker, Molly (2022-04-10). "72 people at high-profile D.C. dinner test positive for Covid". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  15. ^ "The Gridiron Club". www.marineband.marines.mil. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  16. ^ Roberts, Roxanne (2022-04-03). "At the Gridiron dinner, a Republican governor roasted Trump". Washington Post.
  17. ^ Bedard, Paul (2011-03-10). "C-SPAN Barred From Covering Obama's First Gridiron". U.S. News & World Report.
  18. ^ "Obama to skip annual Gridiron dinner". MSNBC. 2009-03-17. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  19. ^ Glass, Andrew (March 10, 2007). "Clinton & Clinton Inc". The Politico. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  20. ^ "Obama Scores With Gridiron Club Dinner". whcinsider.com. White House Correspondents Insider. March 11, 2013. Retrieved 2017-03-05.
  21. ^ Schroeder, Anne (March 28, 2007). "Shenanigans". The Politico. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  22. ^ "WashingtonPost.com: Nixon's Piano". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  23. ^ a b Rothstein, Betsy (2011-01-25). "Gridiron Loosens Rules After 126 Years". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  24. ^ https://www.press.org/newsroom/press-club-members-can-buy-tickets-gridiron-reprise [bare URL]
  25. ^ a b Nolan, Hamilton (April 3, 2007). "Joke is on the press at annual DC dinners". PRWeek. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  26. ^ "WashingtonPost.com: In Tune With Prejudice". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  27. ^ "Novak Mocks Self At DC Media Bash - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2002-03-10. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  28. ^ POLITICO STAFF (2013-03-09). "President Obama Gridiron Club dinner speech 2013 transcript". The Politico. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  29. ^ Terris, Ben (2015-03-15). "Here are President Obama's full remarks from the Gridiron Club Dinner". Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  30. ^ Johnson, Ted (March 3, 2018). "Trump Jokes About Impeachment, Melania Leaving Him at Gridiron Dinner". Variety. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
  31. ^ Zhao, Christina; Roecker, Molly (April 10, 2022). "72 attendees of high profile D.C. dinner test positive for Covid". NBC News. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  32. ^ Philpott, Tom (9 April 2022). "The Gridiron Club Superspreader Event Shows We Can't Just Go Back to Normal". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  33. ^ Petri, Alexandra E. (2022-04-08). "Covid News: At Least 53 People Test Positive After A-List Dinner in Washington". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  34. ^ Paul Farhi; Roxanne Roberts; Yasmeen Abutaleb (2022-04-06). "After Gridiron Dinner, a covid outbreak among Washington A-list guests". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
  35. ^ "Fauci says protocols to protect Biden 'pretty strong' amid rash of Covid cases". the Guardian. 2022-04-10. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  36. ^ Holmes, Jack (2022-05-12). "So We're Not Gonna Mention the Gridiron Dinner Turned Out All Right?". Esquire. Retrieved 2022-05-15.
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