White House press secretary Sean Spicer criticized the White House press corps Monday, saying that some questions during his daily press briefings were aimed at getting “a headline rather than a story.”
In an interview with CBS’ “This Morning,” Spicer said that the presence of TV cameras in the briefing room had intensified his exchanges with reporters.
“You know, it’s about 40 minutes a day, the rest of it is a lot calmer and a lot more pleasant,” he said. “I think the TV cameras intensify what goes on there. But most of the exchanges are very pleasant throughout the day. You’re just seeing one glimpse of what happens.”
The press, Spicer added later, has a “duty” to ask him tough questions, but he hedged that some reporters’ questions didn’t correspond with substantive articles.
“We want to talk about what we’re doing,” he said. “They have a right, and a duty, frankly, to ask tough questions and get to the bottom of things. I think there’s a difference though about the tone that occurs sometimes, and an attempt to try to get a headline rather than a story.”
“You’re talking about the press or the President?” host Charlie Rose joked. In fact, reporters have speculated that President is a frequent viewer of Spicer’s briefings (an “audience of one”), which could explain Spicer’s fiery defenses of Trump’s unproven — and often, unprovable — claims.
“Sometimes it becomes a game of gotcha, which is someone comes in and says, ‘Well, I know this instead,'” Spicer said later, referring to members of the media. “If that’s the game, it’s who can stump the chump, then that’s not really an exercise in trying to get to the bottom of a situation.”
He described some reporters as “trying to figure out how they can sneak a fast one on us” by asking about obscure legislative issues.
“The press briefings usually happen at 1:00,” Spicer said. “And I’m always amazed sometimes at a member of the press corps that has sat on an issue for five or six hours only because they want to play a gotcha question. If they’re truly interested in getting to the bottom of the situation they’ll be able to report out a story, I applaud that. But the question sometimes you have to ask is what’s the motive behind the tone and the questions they’re asking.”
Spicer’s briefings have attracted enormous audiences among political insiders and engaged citizens alike. According to Nielson, the Washington Examiner reported on April 18, the press secretary reaches an average viewership of 3.64 million daily through Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and 4.5 million on especially newsy days.
TPM, along with several other websites, posts “Watch Live” articles whenever Spicer has a briefing on camera.
In a recent survey of the White House press corps, Politico found that 85 percent of correspondents thought the briefings should continue to be televised.
At one point Monday, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell told Spicer that Trump had indicated he would keep employing the press secretary, “as long as there’s great ratings.”
“Well, then keep tuning in,” Spicer responded.
We want the truth from the administration,. not this shit 'People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”
How about that Russian election interference investigation Spicey?
Ah, Spicey. Complaining about “gotcha” questions. The Sara Palin school of deflection.
AnDrew Jackson’s press secretary would have pulled similar viewership,numbers and probably would’ve faced fake media gotcha questions like, “is it true POTUS didn’t renegotiate a better deal for avoiding the Civil War because the war won’t start for another 20 years?”
Spicer’s briefings have attracted enormous audiences