People in the mainstream media have recently criticized White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for not conducting any press briefings since the start of the new year in part because President Trump told her “not to bother” because “the word gets out anyway.”
During an appearance on the Tuesday edition of America’s Newsroom on the Fox News Channel, former Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated that the administration “made the right call on this” because the media turn the briefing “into a circus” that has created “a bunch of YouTube stars that were B-rate reporters.”
Co-host Sandra Smith shifted gears from the leftist attacks on the Covington kids to the briefing: “We asked [White House Deputy Press Secretary] Hogan Gidley yesterday on this program about those press briefings and the fact we haven’t seen Sarah Sanders deliver one so far this year.”
“The President weighed in shortly after that interview,” she noted before quoting Trump’s tweet:
The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!
Smith then noted that Sanders “gave an interview on Fox & Friends this morning basically saying: ‘I talk to the press every single day.’”
“I just wonder from someone who used to stand on that podium,” she added. “I know the importance of delivering that press briefing. Did the White House make the right move here?”
Spicer replied that “they’re making the right call of this. I think we ought to remember what the goal of the briefing is. It’s to speak on behalf of the president of the United States when he is unable to do so for himself.”
“This President, frankly, engages....probably more with the media on a regular basis than any president in the past,” he added, “through pool sprays, through one-on-one meetings, through interviews, et cetera, et cetera.”
Spicer added: “There is no way that you can say that this president is leaving the press wondering what he thinks on any given issue.”
“Whether it’s directly through interviews and opportunities through his Twitter feed, he is communicating directly with the American people and with members of the press,” he added.
Spicer then turned his attention to how some journalists aren't so keen on doing their jobs but instead focus on becoming famous
I think that the briefing turned into a circus, where you’ve created a bunch of YouTube stars that were B-rate reporters to begin with and had gotten no recognition in the past, and they felt [they would get that] if they acted out.
“This has never been about the content of the question,” Spicer then noted. “I don’t really care about that. They are supposed to ask tough, hard questions.”
Instead, it’s about "the conduct. They want to make it into a circus. They want to make themselves stars,” he added.
“They want to get viral videos,” Spicer stated. “I get that, but the White House’s job is to provide information to the public and the media, and they can do so in much more efficient ways.”
During the interview on Tuesday, Gidley asserted: “A lot of the times when we don't come to the podium, it’s because the president has addressed the American people himself.”
