Shapiro at 'National Review': Memo To Media: It's Not About You
Alex Wong/Getty Images
JANUARY 25, 2017
On Saturday, Trump press secretary Sean Spicer created a media firestorm by
fibbing about sizes of inauguration crowds. After calling a press conference to
claim that Trump’s inauguration had the largest audience in history, both “in
person and around the globe,” Spicer tore into the media for their supposed
falsehoods; Spicer specifically referenced D.C. Metro figures, fencing and
magnetometer placement, and floor coverings that highlighted empty spaces
on the National Mall. None of his claims were true.
NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Trump top adviser Kellyanne Conway about Spicer’s
routine. “I’m curious,” he said, “why President Trump chose yesterday to send
out his press secretary to essentially litigate a provable falsehood when it comes
to a small and petty thing like inaugural crowd size. I guess my question to you
is, Why do that?” Conway futzed about for an answer, variously misdirecting to
the press’s willingness to ignore President Obama’s widespread lies, Trump’s
executive actions, and a New York Times reporter’s quickly retracted tweet
about a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. being removed from the Oval Office.
Todd’s question is the right one: What would drive President Trump to spend
mental energy on a question as silly and meaningless as inaugural crowd
size? There are dozens of excellent reasons his crowd size didn’t match
Obama’s; the best reason is that the inauguration takes place in a
Democratic stronghold, Washington, D.C. (Trump won 4.1 percent of the
vote there.) Nonetheless, Trump chose to glom on to media coverage of
crowd size. Why bother? But Todd’s question wasn’t that of the media at
large. Their question quickly turned from one of presidential focus and
temperament to a far more self-centered one: Why would Trump send
out his press secretary to lie to them? Why would Trump want to establish
such an adversarial relationship with the press? Why would Spicer attack
the media?
large. Their question quickly turned from one of presidential focus and
temperament to a far more self-centered one: Why would Trump send
out his press secretary to lie to them? Why would Trump want to establish
such an adversarial relationship with the press? Why would Spicer attack
the media?
That personal umbrage from the media drove the coverage throughout the
weekend. On CNN with Brian Stelter, former Hillary Clinton press secretary
Brian Fallon called Spicer’s comments “an affront to anybody who is on
our side of the wall and works in this business.” CBS’s Major Garrett
complained, “I’ve never seen anything like this, where it was so intense,
so harsh and passionate right off the beginning.”
weekend. On CNN with Brian Stelter, former Hillary Clinton press secretary
Brian Fallon called Spicer’s comments “an affront to anybody who is on
our side of the wall and works in this business.” CBS’s Major Garrett
complained, “I’ve never seen anything like this, where it was so intense,
so harsh and passionate right off the beginning.”
This is why Trump wins every time he attacks the media: because the
media are so consumed with themselves, they don’t seem to care about
the public interest. When Spicer returned to the podium on Monday, he
gave the first question to the New York Post rather than the Associated
Press. This sent the collective media into spasms of apoplexy — how dare
Spicer violate protocol this way? Why did he give questions to the Christian
Broadcasting Network before CNN?
media are so consumed with themselves, they don’t seem to care about
the public interest. When Spicer returned to the podium on Monday, he
gave the first question to the New York Post rather than the Associated
Press. This sent the collective media into spasms of apoplexy — how dare
Spicer violate protocol this way? Why did he give questions to the Christian
Broadcasting Network before CNN?
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