Celebrities, Politicians, and Press Gather at 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner

Love, Hate and Jokes: Obama Ribs Media at Correspondents' Dinner (NBC News)

Official Washington waits all year for this moment – the White House correspondents' dinner – where journalists, politicians and celebrities rub elbows and party.

The decades-long ritual also presents a chance for a president to charm the media and the nation.
And President Barack Obama did not abandon the tradition at Saturday night’s dinner. But he delivered both praise and criticism of the media's response to the terrorist attacks in Boston and the explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas.

Addressing journalists and Hollywood elites in attendance alongside comedian Conan O’Brien, the president praised not just law enforcement in Boston and responders in the Texas explosion, but also print and broadcast reporters who took the time to get the story right.