What David Sacks Yelled at his Alt-White House Correspondents’ Party

Why Substack threw it's own party this year

Tara Palmeri stops by the White House Correspondents Association Dinner red carpet before heading out to cover Trump’s alt-events (Ken Cedeno, REUTERS)

Well, it’s official, I talked so much this weekend, I’ve lost my voice.

But don’t worry I still have a killer lineup of guests for “The Tara Palmeri Show” which you can watch here on YouTube. Make sure to follow on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Amazon Music and Pandora so you get all of the upcoming episodes right to your device. My first guest David Hogg, the 25-year-old renegade inside the Democratic Party, lays out his plans to push out dusty old politicians and makes a brave admission about what he wished he told President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Just wait to hear who he’ll be debating in a future episode…

In so many ways, it’s young people in both the media and politics who are the most clear-eyed about the trust epidemic in this country and why the institutions are responsible for this moment. It’s how MAGA co-opted the Republican National Committee and why legacy media struggles with an audience that favors independent voices.

Axios’ star reporter Alex Thompson, 35, was one of those voices of clarity at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, when he suggested that the press, himself included, should not be defensive about our shortcomings. He said this while accepting an award for his aggressive coverage of Biden’s decline, a story that the mainstream media, in deference to an overly defensive administration, largely ignored.

“We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows,” Thompson said. “I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it. We should have done better.” (Thompson was a regular on my election podcast, where we frequently discussed the topic. You can listen to him here and here.)

Tara Palmeri and friends at WHCD events

Now, I did not see Thompson speak in person, I watched a clip from C-Span on X like most of you. Substack’s Head of News and Politics Catherine Valentine was informed last year in no uncertain terms by the Executive Director of the White House Correspondents’ Association Steve Thomma that Substack would never have a table at the dinner.

“Steve told me ‘I wanted to call you so you could hear my voice as I told you