On Saturday night, as legacy media journalists crowded into the Washington Hilton for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, the mood was somber. The White House Correspondents’ Association decided to omit its usual comedic performance this year, reportedly because the Trump administration complained about the scheduled host. The association said that they wanted “to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division,” so journalists sat quietly while awards and speeches were given.
It did not make for an exciting scene. “It was all NPCs,” says Alice Ma, using a term that describes non-playable characters in a video game. Ma, the Gen Z co-founder of Mad Realities — the social-media based TV network behind shows like Shop Cat and Hollywood IQ — was in town for the weekend’s festivities, and while she didn’t attend the dinner, she witnessed the scene beforehand at the Hilton. “There was a weird corporate energy. It felt like a funeral.”
Five minutes up the road, at the Line hotel, hundreds of influencers, YouTube stars, newsletter writers, podcasters, Gen Z founders, and political personalities celebrated the death of old media at a counterparty hosted by newsletter platform Substack. They sipped cocktails and noshed