WH Press Secretary Sean Spicer Blasts Media’s ‘Deliberately False Reporting’

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Alex Wong/Getty Images
Adelle Nazarian

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held an emergency press briefing on Saturday where he lit into the media for their “egregious” and “deliberately false reporting” of Friday’s inauguration of President Donald Trump and his first day in office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8llFHHAkGcw

“Some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting,” Spicer said. He explained that one reporter “falsely tweeted out that the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. had been removed form the Oval Office… This was just plain wrong.” 

The false report, which Spicer described as “irresponsible and reckless,” came from TIME magazine pool reporter Zeke Miller:

Spicer further noted that the media had attempted to paint Trump’s inauguration as appearing much smaller than President Barack Obama’s.

“Photographs of the Inauguration proceeding were intentionally framed in a way to minimize the enormous support it had gathered on the National Mall,” Spicer said. He added, it was the first time in the nation’s history that white floor coverings had been used to protect the grass and that they amplified empty spaces, whereas the grass had minimized the appearance of spaces in the past. 

“Inaccurate numbers regarding crowd size were also tweeted,” Spicer said. “No one had numbers, because the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall does not put any out.” He said this also applies to any attempts to count the numbers of protesters during the “Women’s March” on Saturday.  

“There’s been a lot of talk in the media about holding President Trump accountable. Well, I’m here to tell you that it goes two ways. We’re going to hold the press accountable as well. The American people deserve better,” Spicer said. “And as long as he serves as the messenger of this incredible movement, he will take this message directly to the American people where his focus will always be.” 

Spicer’s criticism of the media’s fake news reporting resulted in a media meltdown on social media.

MSNBC correspondent Joy-Ann Reid called Spicer “the new Baghdad Bob.”

Left-wing Think Progress’s Judd Legum suggested Spicer had “torched his credibility” for confronting the media’s misreporting with the truth:

Naturally, other media figures from the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Salon also complained: 

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