The night a big story came directly to Washingtons journalists — hundreds of them

Journalists in the nation’s capital are used to chasing stories. But on Saturday night the story dawned on them; Hundreds of people gathered as President Donald Trump prepared to speak were suddenly thrown into chaos when a statement came. Armed man attempted to storm Annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

In the aftermath, security and news became entangled as some of the nation’s most powerful reporters and editors tried to figure out what was happening in front of them.

Or above them in most cases. Many of the journalists, dressed in tuxedos and gowns, ducked for cover out of fear, surprise, or just instinct. “Before we knew it, we were under the table,” The Atlantic magazine journalists Missy Ryan, Matt Viser, and Michael Scherer wrote of their experience.

When they emerged, cell phones were the tools of their trade, taking photos or videos, recording interviews, or keeping a phone line open to describe the crime scene to colleagues working off the scene.

“I don’t think there’s any fear for a lot of people who are in a war zone or in the middle of a crisis,” said former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky, who attended the meeting. “Take him, find him, shoot him, report him. But it was very frustrating not being able to get a signal from the room.”

He added an expletive. Cell phone service at the Washington Hilton is notoriously spotty.

But poor service was a major factor in allowing Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon to capture one of the most memorable images of the night: the shot. suspect Cole Tomas Allen His shirt was removed while he was detained on the floor and outside the ballroom.

Brandon, who was attending as a guest and did not have his usual equipment, stood up at his desk after hearing the gunshot and pointed his cellphone camera at Trump, taking photos of him as he was surrounded by Secret Service agents and then quickly walked down from the podium.

He knew he had important photos and needed to deliver them to the world. But there was no cell phone service. He ran to a doorway to leave the ballroom and saw a person lying on the ground outside, being watched by authorities. Brandon immediately sensed that he was the suspect and began taking more photos.

“Obviously it was muscle memory,” the master photographer said. “It was all muscle memory.”

Moments earlier, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer had seen the attacker approach him uncomfortably before he was taken into custody as Blitzer was returning to the ballroom after a restroom break. The network said a police officer threw Blitzer to the ground and then took him back to the men’s room to hide.

“I was a few meters away from him when he was shooting, and the first thing that went through my mind was ‘Is he trying to shoot me?'” said Blitzer, a veteran of conflict reporting. “It happened,” he said. “I don’t think he tried to shoot me, but I was very close to him when the shots were fired and it was very, very scary, but I’m okay now.”

Maura Judkis of The Washington Post, who documented the social scene, wrote that “much of the crowd immediately began telling the story” as a room was full of journalists. “Print journalists interviewed eyewitnesses. Television reporters shot angled selfie-style videos with the now-empty podium in the background. Non-reporters reached for wine on the tables, hoping to calm their nerves.”

After diving under his desk, Judkis sent a Slack message to his colleagues: “shot fired.” He said that in retrospect, he should have noted that these reports were not confirmed. Did he really hear gunshots or was there something else going on?

In a rapidly developing story, getting the news out quickly and making sure it is solid information is a journalist’s biggest test. At one point, live on air, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said the alleged attacker was “confirmed dead.” He cited a security official who worked for the country’s education minister sitting next to him as his source. But this was wrong.

The biggest concern of most of the journalists who had prepared for the party hours before was whether they would be able to attend the party. subject to tongue-lashing From Trump, whose hostility towards the press, expressed through his words, policies and legal actions, has marked his second term. It was his first time as president attending the reporters’ dinner.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed the president’s speech in a particularly ill-timed comment to Fox News’ Jimmy Failla on the event’s red carpet. “It’ll be funny,” he said. “It’ll be fun. There will be a few shots fired around the room.”

The speech never came. Trump and reporters have expressed interest in rescheduling the event, but it’s unclear if that will happen. The logistics of such a rescheduling following Saturday’s events would be daunting, to say the least.

Trump said at the White House after the incident ended prematurely that he had received a “tremendous amount of love and coming together” following the attack.

“This was an event dedicated to freedom of expression that was supposed to bring members of both parties together with members of the press, and it did happen in a certain way,” he said. “I saw a completely unified room; in a way, it was a beautiful thing to see.”

Trump praised Weijia Jiang, president of the CBS News reporters association, who sat next to him Saturday night. Like many reporters, Trump had contentious exchanges with Jiang, but Jiang said the reporters did a “great job” at his event. He gave her the first question at the press conference.

Not all of Trump’s supporters were generous. Kari Lake, who oversees the U.S. Agency for Global Media and is facing legal action for her work in that role, wrote on social media that she berated CNN’s Jake Tapper when she saw him leaving dinner. “These reporters have spread absolute lies about President Trump for a decade,” he wrote. “They share some of the responsibility for what happened tonight.”

But CBS’ Zirinsky said he felt a new sense of respect in Trump’s words. As CNN’s Brian Stelter noted in Sunday’s newscast, they now had something in common. “Thousands of media and political elites have experienced what millions of Americans have experienced in their schools, offices, malls, and churches,” Stelter wrote.

“I felt it,” Zirinsky said. “Maybe I was the only one. But listening to him in the White House, I literally felt like there was a shared experience and relationship, is this a change? Is this a sign of a relationship change?”

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. follow him http://x.com/dbauder And https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.