http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/media/sean-spicer-press-secretary-statement/index.html
“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.
The only thing we can say at this point is Sean Spicer is a liar, and while that hasn’t been a disqualifying characteristic for press secretaries in the past, none of them have been quite so blantant or disrespectful about it. He’s lost the press room on Day 1, and the media will happily report every mistake and misstep for the next four years. Lying jerks don’t get a honeymoon or a free ride.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Spicer become, almost instantly, an American version of “Baghdad Bob,†the famed Iraqi Information Minister who would issue grandiose proclamations so full of false propoganda that he became in international laughingstock.
Reactions were overwhelmingly negative, and not just from journalists.
Where are we to get credible information about the intentions of the President and those working in the Executive Branch? If we can’t get it from the Press Secretary, the person whose very job it is to deliver this information, that’s hugely problematic for good governance.
UPDATE: The Fox News story of the Spicer press conference highlights their willingness to favor extreme politic bias over the truth. Amazing that anyone gives credence to anything they report, ever.