want our newspapers back home, our home audiences to see us gallivanting around in wigs dresses, all kinds of costumes singing funny songs? usually off key but still spirited? do we really want that public image getting out of context? would it be counterproductive? i wouldn't inhibit what goes on in the room. it is a subject of continuing debate. we have developed a system whereby the speeches are on the record. they are publicly released. for a long time it was through our press releases or people in the room taking their own notes. now we have opened up to print pool coverage. working with the white house correspondents association and

the white house itself, we have a policy since 2012, the first time we let a print journalist into give a pool report. that has been expanded to the wires. this year we have five pool reporters. they must just be print only. even if professionally they happen to be a tv producer. they cannot shoot video. we have a no tweeting rule. no instagram. a number of our members think is some kind of laxative or something. nevertheless we are trying to keep video out and on the air. -- and audio. these are public figures speaking. we have the president speaking when he or she is able to appear. we have a spokesperson for the republican party and a

spokesperson from the democratic party. they should be public record. these folks should be public they accountable. we think it is efficient to have them accountable through print media, and since they are just telling jokes, these are not policy announcements. we think that is a good argument for the exception in this case whereby one does not necessarily have to have full coverage. someday i suppose the gridiron club may well, like other organizations, and have full video coverage. there may be an inevitability. i think it is going to lose something. there is a general agreement that it will lose something special if that happens. we will be different in terms of our rituals, our program.

but the atmosphere that allows people to feel more relaxed and develop a rapport in a town where there is so much rancor and political bickering, that will be lost. the argument goes on. >> outside of the dinner itself are there rules for membership for those who are part of the? how many do you have? >> active members, 50. associate members, 60. and the actual requirement for membership basically is that of being a working journalist in american media. it is not open to overseas media or overseas-based media. it is not open to people who are insularity.

not directly reporting. in this digital age who is not directly reporting? it gets fuzzy. but our rules are specific about this. >> let's talk about the dinner itself. who gets invited? this is the third time the president has been in attendance. >> who gets invited the members want to invite. we have an auction list which is major newsmakers public or private, celebrities etc. who a lot of people want to invite so that we don't have a dozen members all inviting the same person. we do have an option ceremony where you literally pick numbers out of a hat, which gives you the right to choose a head of other people who you want to invite. it takes a little while but it does work well for us.

then there are others who are not on the list that if you want to invite them. each member of the club gets to invite a certain number of people. each member basically starts with 4. as president, i have an unlimited amount of people i can invite if i can afford to pay for their tickets. that is the one benefit of being president he sides being the center of attention for an evening. not quite the center of the president of the united states comes. this is inevitable. how to beget the president there? through formal invitation, prodding and controlling if necessary. find people who know the president and can put in a good word for you. the presidents since glover --

grover cleveland nobody could convince him to come. he didn't get along that well with the media. every president since then has come to the gridiron as an honored guest, has spoken. the president, we give the president the last word of the evening. no matter what is said before the president is the last word, which i think is an important attraction. it is viewed as important enough that some of them have come every year like president obama has. richard nixon didn't come every year but at the end, jimmy carter, ronald reagan was here every year, loved it. his wife performed famously, singing.

she turned her image around. people had an image of her being stuffy and standoffish. everyone agrees that america appreciated her more afterwords. that was one case where photos did leak out somehow. that was delighted to have that image of nancy reagan put out. >> the present of the gridiron club this year, thank you for your time. >> thank you for visiting. [indiscernible conversations] >>

we have been live from the renaissance hotel in washington, d.c. the 130th year for the formal white tie event. the event close to cameras but we have been watching some of the arrivals, some of the members of the club. 65 members. they are arriving tonight read speakers include the president barack obama, governor scott walker, and terry mcauliffe in attendance. we have seen members of congress arriving. current and former cabinet members as well.

for more baseball homerun king arriving for tonight's gridiron club dinner. here on c-span the communicators is coming up next with mignon clyburn talking about the commission's rules for governing the internet. then former governor martin o'malley discusses data-driven decision-making. and then scott walker at a grassroots workshop in concord new hampshire. like c-span, created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to as a public service. host: one of the few people who has read the fcc's net neutrality order. mignon clyburn