Every Obama fan wanted on the guest list of the state dinner for French president Francois Hollande. So it was an extra-special favor for media figures to get the invite.



On the president’s very exclusive guest list Tuesday night: Rev. Al Sharpton of MSNBC, fake-conservative Stephen Colbert, New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker, and two White House correspondents: AP's Julie Pace, and Bloomberg's Julianna Goldman. That wasn’t all.

There were also several other journalist regulars there for familial reasons: ABC reporter Claire Shipman, the wife of White House press secretary Jay Carney, and former ABC “This Week” executive producer Ian Cameron, the husband of national security adviser Susan Rice. Victoria Moseley at ABC (now at CNN) is married to Thomas Nides, who was a Deputy Secretary of State for Hillary Clinton.

(Sharpton, 58, came with his gal pal Aisha McShaw, 35, a "personal stylist.")



Journalists would point out that Republicans are invited to state dinners, too, and the Obamas generally invite one or two. Last night they welcomed Rep. Eric Cantor, as well as Rep. Paul Ryan and his wife Janna. But journalists know that if they accepted the invite in the Bush years, other journalists would frown at them as looking like they compromised their journalistic independence.

The Obamas have held seven state dinners so far, and among the guests were all three current network evening news anchors, as well as a thank-you invite to Katie Couric for that Sarah Palin interview in 2008. Here's a list of some of the top media guests over the years:

November 14, 2009: Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh



Michael Bloomberg, owner of Bloomberg News

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post

Katie Couric, then-CBS anchor

Jason DeParle, New York Times (husband of White House official Nancy-Ann DeParle)

Thomas Friedman , New York Times

Sanjay Gupta, CNN

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric (then-owners of NBC)

Gayle King (pre-CBS News)

Raju Narisetti, Washington Post

Ian Cameron, ABC

Robin Roberts, ABC

Brian Williams, NBC

Fareed Zakaria, CNN



May 19, 2010: Mexican president Felipe Calderon



Giselle Fernandez, former network reporter

Whoopi Goldberg, ABC "The View"

Jorge Ramos, Univision

Maria Elena Salinas, Univision

Ian Cameron, ABC



June 7, 2011: German chancellor Angela Merkel



E.J. Dionne, Washington Post

William Drozdiak, former longtime Washington Post editor

David Leonhardt, New York Times DC bureau chief

Virginia Moseley, ABC

Ian Cameron. ABC

Diane Sawyer. ABC

Gerald Seib, Wall Street Journal



October 13, 2011: South Korean president Lee Myung-bak



Claire Shipman, ABC

Juju Chang, ABC

Neal Shapiro, former NBC News president, now at WNET (PBS)

Candy Crowley, CNN

Virginia Moseley, ABC

Scott Pelley, CBS

Ian Cameron, ABC

Carla Anne Robbins, former deputy editorial page editor, New York Times

Guy Gugliotta, former Washington Post reporter



January 19, 2011: Hu Jintao, leader of Red China



Christiane Amanpour, ABC

James Fallows, former editor of U.S. News

Thomas Friedman, New York Times

Bob Iger, Disney CEO (ABC)

David Ignatius, Washington Post

Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO (NBC)

Nicolas Kristof, New York Times

Sheryl WuDunn, former New York Times reporter

Wendi Deng Murdoch (then-wife of Rupert)

Virginia Moseley, ABC

Ian Cameron, ABC



March 14, 2012: David Cameron, prime minster of the United Kingdom



Lionel Barber, editor, Financial Times

Ian Cameron, ABC

Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post

Claire Shipman, ABC

Jason DeParle, New York Times

Gwen Ifill, PBS

Katty Kay, BBC

Debra Lee, CEO of Black Entertainment Television

Virginia Moseley, ABC

Charlie Rose, PBS

Jeff Shell, chairman, NBCUniversal International

Marva Smalls, VP of Nickelodeon Networks Group

Andrew Sullivan

Paul Tash, CEO of [Tampa Bay] Times Publishing Co.

Gillian Tett., Financial Times

Richard Wolffe, MSNBC