patrick gavin: i started off with less of a critical eye then i ended off with.rted off by saying what is this week, why do celebrities come? you know, sort of just a snapshot. isn't this interesting? and then, as i started interviewing people and listening to what this week was about, you start to realize the criteria were not holding up. people said it was about access. people say it is about white house correspondents. but they get little attention. some say it is about the scholarship. some say it is about fun, but it is not that much fun read the criteria, holding up the week wasn't holding out. that seemed worth examining. that is when i turned a corner to maybe examine the week with greater scrutiny. announcer: that was patrick gavin, an interview done with with him regarding his "nerd prom: inside washington's wildest week." if you have a criticism of a dinner or something you want to say about it, you can tweet us as well. you can follow and make comments on facebook, as well. ♪ announcer: the predinner program is due to begin in 10 minutes. they often p

that's one question posed by the new documentary "nerd prom" made by patrick gavin, a former political reporter. the annual dinner's coming up this saturday and it's one of the biggest nights of the year in washington one of the most star-studded as well but to some outsiders it's exhibit a of the coziness between insiders that infects journalism like a virus. every year at the dinner a comedian makes some jokes and this year's "snl's" cecily strong. but to me stephen colbert's 2006 appearance is hard to beat because he took a bat to that coziness and justkeptwinging. look. >> let's review the rules. here's how it works. the president makes decisions. he's the decider. the press secretary announces those decisions. and you people of the press type those decisions down. make announce type. just put them through a spell spellcheck and go home. get to know your family again. make love to your wife. write that novel you've got kicking around in your head. you know the one about the intrepid washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. you know, fiction. >> i was

and the questions are very similar. >> i'm going to bring in patrick gavin.the argument that, no, the president has -- that the press hasn't gotten the access it should. >> i guess the press secretary takes questions and no white house correspondent would disagree with that. but the president himself is not taking as many questions from white house correspondents as possible. the administration has their position and white house correspondents continue to maintain theirs. why is there a gap, despite pulling out the stats that you mentioned and the points that they mentioned, that white house correspondents haven't moved from their position, that, in fact, this president has been more restrictive towards press? is there a middle ground to come together, or is there any way in the middle that the two can meet? >> i mean, look, if you're a reporter and you're doing your job, you're trying to get more access. that's what reporters are always going to do. they're always going to want to ask more questions. that's great, that's their job, but i think that the white

with my guests, patrick gavin, you did the documentary all about this.re does this fascination with washington come from in terms of all the celebrities that are -- it's a tough ticket to get. is it because there are all these shows now that are doing so well, scandal, house of cards, et cetera? >> yeah. >> or are those shows because celebrities have always been interested in washington? >> part of the reason celebrities are here, two reasons. one, i think they actually enjoy going to dinner with the president. some of them do actually play a role -- >> them and 2600 other people. >> right. they probably think they're closer than they are. what's funny about all these tv shows, people in washington can be very flattered by that. look at all these great shows on tv. but you look at all of them, they portray washington, d.c., horribly. i mean, in "house of cards," politicians are killing people, "veep," i don't think you want a vice president like that vice president. maybe that funny, but not that dysfunctional. >> almost had one like that. >> those sort

producer patrick gavin told the associated press he believes the dinner and the vip parties that surround drifted from the original purpose. that's to honor journalists and raise money for scholarships. "nerd prom" is online right now. film producers plan to release it on i tune amazon and netflix sometime soon. >>> metro concerned about passengers pushing their luck not on the trains but on the tracks themselves. the news 4 i-team obtained shocking videos. check out these surveillance cameras which police say show nearly a dozen metro passengers intentionally trespassing on the track since late last year. including one couple that decided to turn the train station into their own personal photo shoot. some people jumping up and down on the tracks and then a man then snapping pictures as she strikes yoga poses. they go down there for a variety of reasons. to retrieve personal property, some do it as a game. why they go down is a mystery. >>> as for the personal property part of things. metro training and police say passengers are increasingly losing cell phones on the tracks but should nev

announcer: and that was margaret carlson and patrick gavin talking about some of the critiques of these correspondents dinner. christi parsons is the woman you have seen talking with the president from time to time in our live coverage tonight. one of the things that the correspondents association does his hand on scholarships and she talked with us about some of the efforts she had made to bring the dinner more in line with the actual mission. christi: i wrote a letter to the membership this year saying, hey, everyone, please invite your white house correspondence to their annual spring dinner. it is a democracy. we cannot tell people who to invite to their dinner. a lot of news organizations did take that to heart and have made sure that their white house correspondents are at the dinner and seated in their most prominent seats, and we encourage that, we like that. if a news organization decides to go another direction, really it is their right to do that. all we can do is encourage them to get in the spirit of the dinner, which is celebrating white house correspondents. the way you

patrick gavin has some strong thoughts.he nerd prom -- which is what they call this in some places -- is a mess. he writes that something has to change, nonetheless, here is a little more from president obama last night on his bucket list. [video clip] president obama after presiden midterm elections someone asked me if i had a bucket list. i said, i have something that rhymes with bucket list. [applause] take executive action on immigration? bucket. [laughter] list regulations? bucket. it is the right thing to do. host: more of a humor from us tonight. gavin goes on to write that the president should actually get this event occasionally. he writes that there are plenty of grand dinners in washington, but none of them however have the same panache as the white house correspondents association's dinner. the last one to skip it was reagan in 1981, and he bailed because he had been shot. make it so that the night's biggest draw, the president's attendance is not a sure thing. the first call this morning on the beltway culture,

announcer: that was patrick gavin, an interview done with him regarding his nerd prom inside the wildest if you have a criticism of a dinner or something you want to say about it, you can tweet us as well. you can follow and make comments on facebook as well. [laughter] ♪ announcer: the predinner program is due to begin in 10 minutes. they often push it late. the logistics serving 2600 people are not necessarily simple. the washington hilton has gotten used to it. we talked to the general manager about what it take. >> our staff is 1000 team members. 700 full time. 300 onside predict 200 banquet servers. we have 50 managers that serve as greeters to get everybody where they need to go. we have three folks that focus on nothing but time bowties. you wouldn't believe the number of people who don't know how. >> some of the staffers have worked the center fairly often in the past several years. >> our executive chef, this will be his 11th dinner. he began with us 11 years ago. his first night working was for the white house associations dinner. we had charlie, hourly our longest-serving memb

announcer: that was patrick gavin, an interview done with him regarding his nerd prom inside the wildest if you have a criticism of a dinner or something you want to say about it, you can tweet us as well. you can follow and make comments on facebook as well. [laughter] ♪ announcer: the predinner program is due to begin in 10 minutes. they often push it late. the logistics serving 2600 people are not necessarily simple. the washington hilton has gotten used to it. we talked to the general manager about what it take. >> our staff is 1000 team members. 700 full time. 300 onside predict 200 banquet servers. we have 50 managers that serve as greeters to get everybody where they need to go. we have three folks that focus on nothing but time bowties. you wouldn't believe the number of people who don't know how. >> some of the staffers have worked the center fairly often in the past several years. >> our executive chef, this will be his 11th dinner. he began with us 11 years ago. his first night working was for the white house associations dinner. we had charlie, hourly our longest-serving memb