At Thursday’s combative White House press briefing, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited the latest blockbuster study by the Media Research Center’s Rich Noyes, which found that the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC spent May and June obsessing over possible Trump-Russia collusion to the detriment of actual policy topics.
The liberal media spent much of the briefing questioning Huckabee Sanders about President Trump’s lewd tweets about Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski’s face when the deputy press secretary fought back with Noyes’s study.
She began by noting that Trump “would love for us all to focus on the legislative agenda a whole lot more,” but ABC, CBS, and NBC don’t seem interested in doing that:
[Y]ou look at the coverage over the last month of the extended period between May and June, all of the major networks, if you look at their coverage and what they're talking about, they spent one minute in the evening newscasts talking about tax reform, three minutes on infrastructure, five minutes on the economy and jobs, 17 minutes on health care, and 353 minutes — 353 minutes, attacking the President and pushing a false narrative on Russia.
Imploring the media snowflakes to “look at that in comparison” and reconsider this promise of theirs that they would love to focus on policy.
To the groans and gripes coming from reporters, she continued:
[Y]ou guys get to help set that table and 353 minutes of attacks against the President and driving a false narrative and one minute on tax reform. That's over the course of a month. That's crazy. The numbers — guys, the numbers don't lie. The media's focus on priorities, they don't line up with the rest of America. Right now, we've got our economies growing, the stock market’s up, unemployment is down, jobs are back, and ISIS is on the run. America is winning and that's what we'd like to talk about. But you guys constantly ignore that narrative.
Of course, CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta tried to get questions into Huckabee Sanders by mercilessly yelling at her, but Huckabee Sanders allowed Fox News Radio’s John Decker to move on the briefing.
Decker wanted to talk about the tweets and argued the media’s hands have been tied whenever Trump tweets something controversial, but Huckabee Sanders correctly noted that they certainly haven’t based on the MRC study:
Look, I think he's put out a number of tweets on health care, on the immigration bills that’ll be in the House today, we that's not being talked about. That's not being asked about. But the discrepancy, again, 353 minutes, you can't say that you want to talk about policy and then you look at the numbers and they just don't lie. You can't expect for that amount of attack and intensity to come on a President and him to never respond.
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from June 29's White House Press Briefing:
White House Press Briefing
June 29, 2017
2:43 p.m. Eastern
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: I think the President would love for us all to focus on the legislative agenda a whole lot more over — you look at the coverage over the last month of the extended period between May and June, all of the major networks, if you look at their coverage and what they're talking about, they spent one minute in the evening newscasts talking about tax reform, three minutes on infrastructure, five minutes on the economy and jobs, 17 minutes on health care, and 353 minutes — 353 minutes, attacking the President and pushing a false narrative on Russia. I mean, look at that in comparison. If you guys want to talk about legislative agenda and focus on policy and priorities, you guys get to help set that table and 353 minutes of attacks against the President and driving a false narrative and one minute on tax reform. That's over the course of a month. That's crazy. [BRIEFING ROOM GROANS, SCREAMS] The numbers — guys, the numbers don't lie. The media's focus on priorities, they don't line up with the rest of America. Right now, we've got our economies growing, the stock market’s up, unemployment is down, jobs are back, and ISIS is on the run. America is winning and that's what we'd like to talk about. But you guys constantly ignore that narrative.
JIM ACOSTA: Sarah, doesn't he create these distractions on his own?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: But you guys constantly ignore that narrative.
ACOSTA: Sarah, doesn't he create these distractions on his own?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Go ahead, John.
JOHN DECKER [Fox News Radio]: All of those points about the positive developments of what the President's agenda are certainly true, all of those things are true, but the President today put out this tweet which takes away from all of that and you expect us here in this room to simply ignore that. I think that's the valid question that should be asked of you right now. Should we just ignore this entirely?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, I think he's put out a number of tweets on health care, on the immigration bills that’ll be in the House today, we that's not being talked about. That's not being asked about. But the discrepancy, again, 353 minutes, you can't say that you want to talk about policy and then you look at the numbers and they just don't lie. You can't expect for that amount of attack and intensity to come on a President and him to never respond.
ACOSTA: Does he create his own distractions?
