Donald Trump is a chaos agent, not a change agent. Read on. Catch up with you later.
CNN:
"That's what you guys should be writing and covering," new White House press secretary Sean Spicer angrily lectured reporters on Saturday during his first remarks from the podium of the press briefing room.
He was referring to the delay in Senate confirmation for President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Congressman Mike Pompeo, but the comment came after a long digression about how many people had shown up to watch Trump be sworn in as president.
"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period," Spicer said, contradicting all available data.
Aerial photos have indicated that former president Barack Obama's first inauguration attracted a much larger crowd. Nielsen ratings show that Obama also had a bigger television audience.
Spicer said, without any evidence, that some photos were "intentionally framed" to downplay Trump's crowd.
Some important things to keep in mind: Trump lies constantly. He doesn’t care that they are lies, and never will. He’s hired others to clean up his mess, but you can’t believe them either. Media can’t or won’t grasp this as an essential underlying truth, so they deal with day to day controversies and chase shiny objects rather than develop a strategy. And because of it, they are not effective.
Here’s hoping they see the pattern and learn.
Take a moment to read a short tweet storm from me. Frames the issue as I see it:
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
The traditional way of reporting on a president is dead. And Trump’s press secretary killed it.
Ari Fleischer, a former George W. Bush press secretary, saw Saturday’s bizarre session for what it was.
“This is called a statement you’re told to make by the President. And you know the President is watching,” Fleischer wrote. (MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski pegged it as “Sean Spicer’s first hostage video.”)
The mainstream media, including The Washington Post, appropriately made clear note of the falsehoodsabout crowd size. The New York Times called out “false claims” in a prominent headline, and many broadcast journalists challenged Spicer immediately — although they didn’t get a chance to do so to his face, since he took no questions.
CNN wisely chose not to air the briefing in full, but to report on it and to show parts, providing context. Fox News showed it in its full glory, infomercial style.
Some journalists, afterward, sounded stunned at what had transpired.
“Astonishing,” said Jim Acosta of CNN. “Jaw meet floor” was the reaction of Glenn Thrush of the New York Times…
Spicer’s statement should be seen for what it is: Remarks made over the casket at the funeral of access journalism.
See my comment above about the press reaction. It’s partially because (and inappropriately so) they give Sean Spicer the benefit of the doubt. Stop doing that. He’s every bit a professional weasel as Kelly Anne Conway. If he’s told to lie, he will. Full stop.
This is like a story about conjuring the rain to fix a drought… and getting a tornado instead. Trump voters wanted change. Instead we have chaos. And my biggest fear is that some of Trump’s advisors (like Steve Bannon) want it that way.
Michael Gerson/WaPo:
After every major Trump speech or event, the person I was before it seems desperately naive. I have been a consistent Trump critic, but my expectations are never quite low enough.
Some of us approach Inauguration Day with a kind of democratic reverence. Its customs encourage the love of country. The best inaugural addresses offer historical context, emphasize shared values, encourage engaged citizenship, express goals worthy of a great nation, and at least attempt to wrap it all up in a neat package of rhetorical ambition.
For Donald Trump, who lives in an eternal now, Inauguration Day was Friday, offering another opportunity to deliver a less raucous version of his stump speech — a chance to slam the establishment and make Peronist promises to reverse globalization. Apart from a few nice phrases undoubtedly borrowed from other, superior drafts, the “American Carnage” speech was blunt, flat and devoid of craft. Also devoid of generosity, humility and grace. Making it perfectly credible as the work of Trump’s own hand.
Trump says 1.5 million people attended his inaugural, a fabrication by a fabulist.
Well done!!
WaPo:
She’s 54, white, rural and a lifelong Republican. Why is she protesting Donald Trump
A mountainous town of 30,000 residents in central Pennsylvania, its economy and culture have long been tethered to the vagaries of hard industry — first lumber, then manufacturing, then natural gas — and it anchors a county that is 92 percent white and went 71 percent for Trump.
This is the only town, the only America, that Barr, 54, riding the bus with her daughter, Ashley, 30, has ever known. A petite woman who feels most comfortable when no one is looking at her, she has never done anything like this before. She has only been to Washington one time, and big cities intimidate her. Back home in Williamsport, she manages a hardware store, which exclusively employs white men and almost exclusively services them. Most days, she adores the job. But more and more, especially after the campaign and election, she has begun to feel claustrophobic, not only there but in Williamsport.
Is she happy? Is she living the life she was supposed to? Is it too late at this point in her life — a middle-aged, divorced mother of three — to be someone different?
Why has she come?
She sat quietly toward the front of the bus, unsure, but hopeful, that this march, this trip to Washington, might provide an answer.
There is more to America than Trump voters, and protestors do not just come from the elitist coasts. That’s another lie they want you to believe. Don’t.
Upshot/NY Times on fake news:
Researchers Created Fake News. Here’s What They Found
“False remembering is incredibly correlated with people’s priors,” Mr. Gentzkow said. “One way to think about it is we know our memories are very imperfect. And if you ask me if I saw something, I’m partly asking myself how likely it is that I saw it. People are doing inference.”
Mashable:
Twitter roasts Trump aide for calling lies 'alternative facts
Spicer's false remarks instantly became a new meme and sent the internet into a fury.
On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, appeared on NBC's Meet The Press, where Chuck Todd grilled the Trump administration for spreading falsehoods on their first full day in office. In response, Conway called the falsehoods "alternative facts."
BuzzFeed:
Here’s How Newspapers Around The World Covered The Women’s March
“Hear them roar.”