Sean Spicer: King of Alternative Facts

[AnywhereButHere]

He's the freaking Press Secretary! Isn't being the public face of the White House kind of like, oh I don't know, his JOB? Spicer, your days are numbered, and you should thank any and all deities for that!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-plans-to-sideline-spicer-in-press-briefings/ar-BBBhiCF?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=msnbcrd

Quote

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer will no longer be regularly attending the daily press briefing, according to a Thursday report.

The move is part of a wider effort on President Donald Trump’s part to “scale back” the role of the press secretary in the day-to-day public interactions with members of the press, White House officials told Politico.

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, AnywhereButHere said:

He's the freaking Press Secretary! Isn't being the public face of the White House kind of like, oh I don't know, his JOB? Spicer, your days are numbered, and you should thank any and all deities for that!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-plans-to-sideline-spicer-in-press-briefings/ar-BBBhiCF?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=msnbcrd

 

Here's another source that  Spicey's days are probably numbered:

Sean Spicer set to have White House press secretary role downsized by Donald Trump as part of shake-up to communications team

Quote

[...]

Politico reports sources close to the president as saying Spicer will no longer do daily, on-camera briefings after Mr Trump’s foreign trip ends next weekend.

Mr Trump reportedly dreads the daily briefings, which can be cringe-worthy as Spicer argues with reporters, refuses to answer questions and offers statements that are later contradicted by the president himself. As new details emerge on nearly a daily basis about Team Trump’s ties to Russia, the president has blamed his communications shop for his troubles.

Spicer, a well-liked Republican insider before assuming his current post, has put his foot in his mouth more than once. He once suggested that Syrian strongman Bashar Assad was a worse war criminal than Hitler because, he said, the Fuhrer never used chemical weapons on his own people. He later apologised.

Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to take on a larger role, and new blood may be brought in as well. [...]

Spicer, the website said, was expected to get another job in the administration.

Thank heavens for that!
SNL simply wouldn't be the same without Melissa McCarthy in her role as Spicey. She might have to ditch the motorized podium though...

[Flossie]

Spicer wasn't suited to the job, and it was plain to see.  I don't know how much is ineptitude, how much is Trump's obvious dislike of Spicer, and how much is his inability to fully parrot out the party line.  It's got to be difficult to defend a dangerous lunatic on a daily basis, especially when the lunatic routinely sets you up for failure.  Now Trump is blatantly auditioning candidates to take over the role of Press Secretary.

Spicy, some free advice:  Take a good look at what happens on a distressingly regular basis to Trump lackeys.  It's not pretty.  Since you're on your way out anyway, why not leave on your own terms and simply quit now?  Sure, Trump will despise you for it, while he's secretly pleased that you're gone and displeased that he didn't get to humiliate you further with a public sacking.  But a lot of other people will understand and maybe even have a tiny bit of respect for someone who dumped Trump.  Trump won't last forever, why let him consume what's left of your soul one minute longer?

Edited May 19, 2017 by Flossie
Punctuation. I hope it got it right this time.

[GreyhoundFan]

Awwww, poor Spicey: "Sean Spicer didn’t get to meet the pope. Even reporters feel sorry for him."

Spoiler

The least likely people you’d expect to feel badly for embattled White House press secretary Sean Spicer are those with whom he has sparred with the most.

So it came as a surprise to some on Wednesday when Spicer received an outpouring of sympathy. The reason: As President Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Spicer — a Catholic — was noticeably absent from the entourage.

Those in attendance included first lady Melania Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster; Hope Hicks, Trump’s communications adviser; Keith Schiller, his former bodyguard; and Dan Scavino, his social media manager. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are both Jewish but nonetheless met with the pontiff.

Meanwhile, Spicer, the highly visible White House aide who was reportedly excited to meet with Pope Francis, wasn’t there.

“Wow,” a source told CNN. “That’s all he wanted.”

Spicer’s absence struck a chord. By excluding him, “Trump has done something I thought was impossible,” tweeted Josh Dawsey, Politico White House reporter.

“He has made everyone empathize with/defend Spicer,” Dawsey said.

...

New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush spoke out. Spicer has on multiple occasions criticized and clashed with Thrush during press briefings, exchanges portrayed by Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer character on “Saturday Night Live.”

“That planners of this trip couldn’t or wouldn’t get @seanspicer into the Vatican speaks to a small-mindedness I find incredibly depressing,” Thrush tweeted.

“This seems needlessly harsh — when else is Spicer likely to meet the Pope, and it mattered to him?” tweeted New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman.

“Trump is a cruel boss,” said New Republic senior editor Jeet Heer, who also wrote the president “didn’t let Sean Spicer meet the Pope out of sheer meanness.”

Politico Magazine editor in chief Blake Hounshell said leaving out Spicer “seems like a slight.”

Huff Post published the headline, “Sean Spicer Gets A Ride On The Nope Mobile.”

CNN’s Erin Burnett said meeting with the pope “by all accounts would have been the highlight of his life.”

Mark Preston, a senior political analyst for CNN who attends church in the same parish as Sean Spicer, told Burnett the press secretary’s absence “I’m sure is really hurting him,” and suggested his exclusion reflected the president’s “pettiness.”

“There are very few perks, there are very long days,” he said of Spicer’s job. “For something like this to happen to Sean Spicer I think really is an indictment against Donald Trump and again in his lack of loyalty.”

Burnett wrapped up the segment by saying, “If Donald Trump indeed plans to remove him, go ahead and get rid of him. But he’s done a lot for you. This deeply mattered to him. I just think on a human level it was clear what the right thing to do was.”

...

Some outside of the media industry were equally vocal.

“I’m no Spicer fan, but Trump’s petty refusal to include him, a devout Catholic … was cruel and disgusting,” Harvard Law School’s Laurence Tribe tweeted.

“There are few things I despise more than people who use their power to step on the dreams of others,” another tweet said.

Spicer is a regular at Sunday mass, and told reporters earlier this year that he gave up alcohol for Lent. He was mocked last year for appearing on CNN with ashes on his forehead in honor of Ash Wednesday.

He did not respond to media requests for comment Wednesday evening, but has previously spoken of his faith publicly.

In a television interview during the transition, Spicer said, “I’m going to look to God every day to give me the strength to do what’s right,” he said.

“That’s all you can ask for is to get up and say, ‘Can I do this thing?'” Spicer said. “Help guide me and ask Him for strength.”

Some on social media expressed less sympathy toward the press secretary, with at least one Twitter user surmising, “maybe he didn’t want to go!”

Comedian Samantha Bee tweeted: “sorry about the pope. Remember, you don’t HAVE to put up with this …”

 

I like the tweet that asked if he couldn't have just observed from the bushes. I'm no Spicey fan, but that is a really shitty way to treat him.

[Flossie]

I wonder when Spicer was told he wasn't going to meet the Pope.  It sounds like he thought he was going to, so when did the rug get pulled out from under him?

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump delayed firing Spicey just so he could humiliate him this way.  Spicer has no reason to stay loyal any longer.

Spicey?  Say it with me now:  Dump Trump!  Dump Trump!

[JMarie]

Does this mean we're stuck with Sarah Huckabee Sanders  at every press conference?

[Gobsmacked]

On 11 May 2017 at 3:35 PM, CTRLZero said:

Maybe his commanding officer ordered him not to go on camera during his Navy Reserve duty stint, so he thought he could get around it this way?     Now I think of him as a hedgehog.

 

 

Cute but prickly.

[Gobsmacked]

I should have read back the way. I've always had a tad of sympathy for Sean even though he is a Trump leghumper. He is obviously the kid allowed to sit at the very END of the popular table. The kid who takes all the "jolly japes" sent at him with a fixed grin, just to keep his seat.

Find another table to sit at Sean, Mr Comey might have space at his. The conversation is bound be much more interesting and I suspect it's going to fill up quickly. Grab your place whilst you can. 

Just keep away from the shrubbery if you want people to like you! Folk hiding in bushes can get themselves a reputation. Just a warning from an older mum.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

Does this mean we're stuck with Sarah Huckabee Sanders  at every press conference?

I can't see her lasting long or doing better than Spicey.

[apple1]

6 hours ago, Flossie said:

I wonder when Spicer was told he wasn't going to meet the Pope.  It sounds like he thought he was going to, so when did the rug get pulled out from under him?

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump delayed firing Spicey just so he could humiliate him this way.  Spicer has no reason to stay loyal any longer.

Spicey?  Say it with me now:  Dump Trump!  Dump Trump!

While I am not a fan of Spicer, I think how Trump treated him was awful - even considering the source.

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, apple1 said:

While I am not a fan of Spicer, I think how Trump treated him was awful - even considering the source.

Who is going to hire him now?  He has such an orange stain on his name.

[formergothardite]

Trump is going to continue humiliating him. Spicer needs to jump ship now and start the very, very, very long process of rebuilding his public image. 

[IrishCarrie]

Spicey could redeem himself with a tell-all book - I'd totally buy that! 

And even though Trump has only been in office for four months, there's been so much happening that Spicey would probably have to divide the book into half a dozen different volumes!

[onekidanddone]

Apparently Spicy is hold a press conference as I type this. There is not a frecking thing that pasty, pale kiss ass could say that I want to hear. Just his voice, like the voice of his boss, makes all stabby.  I might read the transcript later, but to watch his blithering idiocy ...hell no

[Howl]

Spicer is firmly entrenched and hella connected in Republican politics  and has been for almost 20 years.  I suspect he'll have a pretty soft landing when (not if) he's kicked to the curb.  Consultant, think tank, lobbyist...D.C. man about town. 

[fraurosena]

Hallie Jackson, chief WH correspondent with NBC just tweeted this:

 

The comments are as hilarious as they are brutal.

[GreyhoundFan]

Here's a little more on Spicey's press conference yesterday. He is really losing it: "Sean Spicer returns with a press briefing for the ages"

Spoiler

Sean Spicer was back Tuesday, and the White House media briefing was better than ever.

President Trump's press secretary opened his first news conference since May 15 with an epic retelling of the president's multi-stop foreign trip. Adjectives used by Spicer included “extraordinary,” “unprecedented” and “historic.”

But the real fun began when Spicer opened the session to questions. The first went to The Washington Post's Philip Rucker, who asked whether Trump knew at the time that his senior adviser, Jared Kushner, sought to create a secret communication channel with Russia in December.

“You're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action,” Spicer replied.

Huh? The Post reported Kushner's effort on Friday, and the White House did not deny the report or even cast doubt on it. In fact, surrogates including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway seemed to validate the report by insisting publicly over the next few days that back channels are common, appropriate and good.

Now Spicer is suggesting that the report might be inaccurate?

What happened, of course, is that earlier on Tuesday, Trump tweeted a link to a Fox News report that claims Kushner did not try to set up a back channel after all. No one in Trump's administration had made that argument before; the agreed-upon message was that back channels are totally fine.

As he has before, the president blew up the coherent message that his team had crafted and put Spicer in an impossible situation. Asked by the Daily Mail's Francesca Chambers why Trump considers the Post report dubious but the Fox News report credible, Spicer had no answer because there is no logical consistency. The Fox News report, which carried no byline, was based on a single, unnamed source.

Later in the briefing, Spicer said Trump “is frustrated, like I am and so many others, to see stories come out that are patently false, to see narratives that are wrong, to see quote-unquote 'fake news.'”

“Could you give us an example of fake news, Sean?” CNN's Jim Acosta asked.

“Sure,” Spicer answered. “Friday the president was having a great discussion at the G-7 and somebody from the BBC and ultimately an incoming reporter for the New York Times tweeted that the president was being rude by disrespecting the Italian prime minister when, in fact, you all — in every one of the meetings that we sit in — watch the president with that one earpiece that's been used by other presidents.”

In case you missed the earpiece episode over the long weekend, here's the gist: The BBC's James Landale mistakenly believed that Trump was not listening to a translation of remarks by Italy's Paolo Gentiloni because Trump was not wearing headphones, like his fellow world leaders. Other journalists, including Shane Goldmacher, who is leaving Politico for the New York Times, retweeted Landale's message.

It turned out, however, that Trump was wearing a small earpiece that was not easily visible. Landale was wrong.

The error proves, once again, that journalists are fallible. Yet it is telling that Spicer chose to zero in on this particular incident after airing a sweeping complaint about “narratives that are wrong.”

The key media narrative of Trump's presidency thus far is that his team might have had inappropriate contact with Russia during and after the campaign. Individual report after individual report feeds this broad story line.

Spicer's complaint about a British journalist's earpiece tweet — while entirely legitimate — did not in any way address the most important media narrative of the moment. Pressed for another example, Spicer said he “didn't come here with a list of things.”

“What I'm telling you is, is that the reason the president is frustrated is because there's a perpetuation of false narratives, a use of unnamed sources over and over again about things that are happening that ultimately don't happen, and I think that is troubling,” he added moments later. “Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it.”

With that, a visibly frustrated Spicer ended his first briefing in more than two weeks after just 30 minutes, cutting the session shorter than usual.

...

If there is a reboot of the Spice Girls, maybe he could be "Crazy Spice" or "Deluded Spice".

Edited May 31, 2017 by GreyhoundFan

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Politico had an interesting take on Spicey's press conference: "Spicer’s ‘middle finger’ to the press"

Spoiler

The hardest job in Washington is getting only harder.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer is once again expected to take on the additional role of communications director with the resignation of Michael Dubke, meaning he’ll juggle the two jobs most central to pushing the White House’s message — and most scrutinized by a president frustrated by a gush of negative media reports.

President Donald Trump is also now back from abroad and back on Twitter, making any coherent messaging strategy nearly impossible. The president has already appeared to complicate Senate efforts by calling for more health care spending, and he tore up his aides’ careful talking points on Jared Kushner’s Russia scandals by retweeting a Fox News article about the controversy. And that was just during his first two full days back in Washington.

The strain on the man who has to explain it all showed during a combative briefing on Tuesday, and during the foreign trip in which Spicer was largely sidelined.

The fact Spicer did the briefing at all was a bit of a surprise, given that Trump had already discussed pulling back Spicer’s public role once the team was back in Washington. White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who enjoys a good rapport with the press corps, is expected to command more of the daily briefings going forward.

Spicer did the briefing on Tuesday “to give the middle finger to you guys,” a Republican close to the White House said. "Spicer wanted to do it, and Trump was good with it. I'm not sure how often he'll do it from now on, but today was to give the middle finger to you guys."

"They have realized the communications value of those briefings is not good for them,” the person added.

Trump, who has frequently critiqued his press secretary, recently told Spicer that his answers to reporters' questions were too long and that he needed to be more succinct, two people familiar with the conversation said.

After the briefings, Trump has taken to occasionally dissecting Spicer's words on specific questions, pointing out mistakes and giving him tips on how to respond in the future, the people added.

Tuesday’s briefing was packed with bold adjectives, dodges and media attacks. Spicer described Trump’s foreign trip in a long opening statement as “incredible,” “historic,” and “unprecedented.” Trump’s relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “fairly unbelievable,” he said at one point.

He derided the press as “fake news,” excoriated the use of anonymous sources and defended the president’s dissemination of a story that relied on a single, unidentified source. At one point, he scolded Peter Baker, The New York Times chief White House correspondent, for shaking his head. And when he abruptly ended the briefing, he left the stage to angry shouts and continued questions from the assembled correspondents.

Spicer faced special difficulty answering questions about Kushner’s alleged effort to establish back-channel communications with Russian officials during the transition, and about Trump’s reaction.

"What your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out," he said at one point. "You're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action.”

Spicer refused to deny the reports about Kushner’s actions but also said that back channels are “acceptable.” He declined to say if he personally thinks they are acceptable, and said he was only quoting other administration officials.

The frustration he showed at the lectern Tuesday is not new. On the recent trip abroad, he repeatedly showed the strain of the job.

At one point, he got drinks with a group of other staffers and reporters in Jerusalem, where he was adamant that the conversation steer clear of work.

"The most we’ve seen of Sean [Spicer] was at a rooftop bar in Jerusalem,” said one U.S. journalist on the trip. “But he refused to take work-related questions and said if you asked him a work-related question, then you had to take a shot.”

The comment was made in jest, according to people present, and no shots were taken.

No POLITICO employees were present at the gathering, which was off the record. Spicer declined to comment.

Spicer on Tuesday argued that Trump is “very pleased” with the work of his staff, pushing back against rumors about further changes beyond Dubke’s departure, which was reported Tuesday morning.

During the briefing, Spicer acknowledged what the president plainly believes.

“Ultimately, the best messenger is the president himself,” Spicer said. “He’s always proven that.”

Yeah, the middle finger is pretty much what we're all being given.

[fraurosena]

Alternative facts: There is no such thing as climate change, and global warming is a Chinese hoax, perpetuated by FAKE news! However...

 

Cognitive dissonance is incredibly strong here. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The press secretary with no answers"

Spoiler

(CNN)White House press secretary Sean Spicer started the week dogged by rumors that he was about to be demoted or fired. He ended it almost speechless, incapable or unwilling to answer even the most basic questions about President Donald Trump and the administration's policies.

Take Spicer's response in Friday's briefing as to whether or not Trump believes, as he tweeted in 2012, that climate change is a hoax created to aid China and hobble US manufacturing.

"I have not had an opportunity to have that discussion," Spicer said, despite the fact that he was asked the same question earlier in the week and, in the intervening time, Trump had formalized his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accords -- making the US one of only three countries worldwide to do so.

Asked later in the briefing whether he would commit to asking Trump whether he still believed climate change is a hoax, Spicer offered only: "If I can, I will." Which in political-speak is the equivalent of saying: "Absolutely not."

When Spicer was asked to comment on the ongoing Russia probe, he said this: "I cannot, and as I've mentioned the other day that we're focused on the President's agenda and going forward all questions on these matters will be referred to outside counsel Marc Kasowitz." Asked several other questions tied to the Russia investigations, Spicer repeated, verbatim -- with glances down at the sheet of paper on the podium where it was written -- the line about all matters being referred to Trump's personal lawyer.

What's clear from this week -- which included two on-camera briefings (Tuesday and Friday) as well as one off-camera briefing (Wednesday) -- is that Spicer believes the best way to keep his job is to do as little of it as possible.

Throughout the week, he was terse, serious and brief -- in both his answers and the numbers of questions he was willing to take. When he did "answer" questions it was with rote talking points that sought to paint an entirely alternate political reality from the one that most Americans are living in.

On Monday, for example, Spicer spent 11 minutes delivering a paean to Trump's foreign trip -- the word "historic" was used repeatedly -- and then dismissed legitimate questions about Russia's attempts to influence the election as "fake news."

All White House press secretaries walk a very fine line between keeping their credibility with the press corps and keeping their boss happy. Those two tasks rarely line up -- which is what makes the job so incredibly challenging.

But, Spicer -- as evidenced by his performances this week -- seems to have given up any attempt to straddle that fine line. He has bowed to the reality of this White House: There is really only one audience member who counts. And his name is Donald John Trump.

Just as Trump's election and first 133 days in office are unlike anything we have ever seen before, so, too, is the job Spicer is doing as press secretary. Never before have we seen a press secretary so unwilling to, well, deal with the press.

What's remarkable in this up-is-down White House is that Spicer almost certainly helped himself in the eyes of Trump this week. He pushed back hard against the media's narrative on Russia, dropped the term "fake news" liberally and ended the press briefings on his own time and terms. To Trump, that is a command performance that will almost certainly keep him in his job.

Which, it appears, is what Spicer cares most about these days.

Spicey, the man with a plan...to try and keep his job while looking as bad as possible.

[candygirl200413]

 

It’s time for cable news to unplug the White House press briefings

To piggyback on a similar article from @GreyhoundFan

Quote

During a press briefing this week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked a straightforward question about whether the president believes that human activity contributes to climate change. “Honestly, I haven't asked him. I can get back to you,” was Spicer’s non-answer.

Spicer acts as one of the president’s closest aides, but he hasn’t asked Trump if he believes in the simple premise of global warming? This, despite the fact that Trump this week took the radical position of triggering the withdrawal process for the United States to leave the historic Paris climate agreement.

If Spicer can’t address simple questions, then what’s the point of Spicer’s press briefings?

More importantly, why are cable news channels still devoted to airing virtually every minute of every Spicer briefing?

Even people on CNN agree, although they’re not quite framing it that way. In the wake of Spicer’s new brand of nearly news-less briefings where the press secretary aggressively delivers few answers and virtually no insights in response to reporters’ questions, CNN hosts had this exchange on Wednesday morning (emphasis added):

ALISYN CAMEROTA: So then Sean Spicer goes to the podium with the press; and he can't confirm or comment on the questions that the press has about Jared Kushner and whether or not Jared Kushner tried to set up this back channel. So I mean, at what point -- why is Sean Spicer holding these press briefings? You know? What's the point of these?

DAVID GREGORY: There's really no point. And what's unfortunate for Sean Spicer is that the White House press secretary position under President Trump doesn't have credibility.

That same day, CNN’s Dylan Byers detailed just how little substance Spicer now delivers at the briefings, noting, “For two days in a row, since returning from President Trump's trip abroad, the White House press secretary has held uncharacteristically short press briefings in which he claimed not to know the answer to questions, outsourced questions to other officials or dismissed the premise of questions entirely.”

The trend has been on display for weeks. “Sean Spicer appears to be staking out a new approach: Say hardly anything at all,” US News & World Report noted in mid-May.

The conclusions being drawn here are correct. Whether out of frustration with bad new cycles, or because of looming personnel changes in Trump’s communications team, the White House has decided to make the daily press briefings perfunctory events specifically designed to not inform reporters. (Trump last month floated the idea of canceling the briefings all together. More recent reports say the on-camera briefings may decline in number, and Spicer briefed reporters off-camera on Wednesday.) 

Lowering the information curtain even further, Spicer announced on Wednesday that all questions about ongoing Russia investigations would have to be posed to Trump’s personal attorney and that Spicer would no longer be addressing what’s perhaps the most pressing political issue facing this administration.

Which brings me back to what seems like an obvious point: It’s time for cable news to pull the plug on its devotion to airing virtually every Trump White House press briefing in its entirety.

The briefings are rarely newsworthy, they’re deliberately not informative, and they are filled with misinformation. The fact that they’re televised every day sends a clear signal from corporate media that The Donald Trump Show is worth broadcasting even when it has negative value in terms of informing viewers -- and even though it’s a major shift in practice from how press briefings were treated at the end of the Obama administration. 

That brand of obedient programming leads to a kind of breathless mindset that’s more synonymous with a wartime culture news reporting (i.e., Everybody stop what you’re doing -- the White House is about to make a statement!).

Are there days when it would make sense to air Spicer’s briefings, or portions of them? Of course. Just like there were times during the Obama administration when it made sense to occasionally air its briefings. But there’s simply no justification for nonstop coverage, especially when the briefings are built on deceits, and when they’re designed to foil honest inquiries.

Note that Spicer’s current trend toward even less briefing information comes from a press secretary who had already drastically reduced the length of briefings. Compared to Spicer’s predecessor in the Obama administration, Josh Earnest, the Republican’s daily briefings so far run approximately 40 percent shorter in time, which means far fewer questions get asked. “Earnest allowed 2,574 follow-up questions while Spicer allowed only 1,919 over the same number of briefings,” according to a Media Matters study that looked at Spicer's first 48 briefings and Earnest's last 48.

And yet, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC each aired at least 93 percent of Spicer's briefing time, compared to just 2 percent for Earnest's:

Two important points: First, there’s been something of myth created that Spicer’s briefings produce great cable news ratings, and that’s why they are aired each day. A February 10 New York Times article was responsible for that idea, but the Times article itself didn't actually show that much of a bump.

The paper claimed cable news ratings increased “10 percent” during Spicer briefings. But in the world of cable news, which has a relatively small audience to begin with and where ratings tend to be volatile, a 10 percent gain doesn’t mean much. (Prime-time cable news ratings fluctuate by more than 10 percent all the time.) If Spicer’s briefings produced a 40 or 50 percent spike in ratings, that would suggest some sort of phenomenon. But they don’t.

And even if Spicer is giving a big ratings boost, that's still not a good excuse for actively misinforming viewers by broadcasting all the briefings. 

Second, there’s an idea that since all three cable news channels religiously carry the briefings, it would be difficult for one to step away. But CNN already did that once, and the network should do it again. 

Back on the night of January 21, when the White House was fuming about coverage of Trump’s inauguration and how the press was noting how small the crowd was that day, Spicer addressed reporters in the briefing room and CNN deliberately opted not to air it live.

Producers “decided to see what was said at the press event, according to a person familiar with the network, then play relevant parts as deemed necessary,” Variety reported.

It’s time for CNN and its competitors go back to that model.

 

 

 

 

[fraurosena]

Shall I be brutally honest? I think all this interest in what Spicer has to 'say' is Melissa McCarthy's fault.

[GreyhoundFan]

12 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Shall I be brutally honest? I think all this interest in what Spicer has to 'say' is Melissa McCarthy's fault.

While that is certainly part of it, I think that there are three main reasons. First, the mainstream media bends over backwards to be fair to the loons on the right. When Agent Orange or one of his sycophants cries that their crap isn't being covered, then CNN, MSNBC, etc, can point to the x number of minutes/hours/days spent on that very topic and feel like they convince the Branch Trumpvidians that they are being fair, even though we all know that the BTs will never believe a word spoken on CNN or MSNBC. Secondly, I think there is a little bit of snobbery being displayed. Like, see, we'll show Spicey and his stupid crap and then pick apart all the errors. Don't get me wrong, I'm just as guilty of it, but it comes off a bit like, "hey we're smarter than the person we're featuring." Does that make sense? Finally, if they show the whole conference, they think the administration can't cry that things were taken out of context. Note the word "think", because that's exactly what happens -- Spicey says something stupid and Agent Orange tweets that it was taken out of context.

 

I do wish that, starting in 2015, the mainstream media didn't pay breathless attention to Agent Orange. We may not be in this hell of an existence. Maybe cutting coverage will make a difference.

[fraurosena]

9 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I do wish that, starting in 2015, the mainstream media didn't pay breathless attention to Agent Orange. We may not be in this hell of an existence

This is indeed where my "Wut" began, as I watched the American election-drama unfold. It seems to me that while we all watch the MSM, and indeed are glad of their efforts to expose the dark underbelly of this administration, we are forgetting that the MSM is only running after ratings when all is said and done. The tangerine toddler has been and is still ratings GOLD. 

I truly wish that their motives were simply altruistic, but we should realize that although their coverage serves an altruistic purpose on the surface (and I do believe certain reporters/investigative journalists are quite sincere in their efforts) that all this coverage would come to a grinding halt if the ratings were to drop, no matter how 'good' the cause may be.

Yeah, I'm cynical that way.