The Obama/media honeymoon is over.
On Saturday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer gave his first press conference under the new administration and made it clear that the media will be held accountable for being “irresponsible and reckless” in its reporting.
Spicer called out those whom he said engaged in “deliberately false reporting” in the first 24 hours since the inauguration. First up was Zeke Miller, a White House reporter for TIME magazine. Friday evening, Miller suggested on Twitter that President Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. As it turns out, Miller didn’t see it because someone was standing in the way. He later had to issue an apology for his false report. Spicer was right when he said jumping the gun like that was “irresponsible and reckless.”
Then, the press secretary defended Trump’s inaugural crowds from reports that they were small and insignificant compared to Obama’s and others.
“Photographs of the inauguration proceedings were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall,” said Spicer. “Inaccurate numbers involving crowd size were also tweeted; no one had numbers.”
“These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong,” he added.
Spicer said journalists should stick to reporting facts and stop framing narratives that suit their agendas and to stop “sowing division.”
“There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable, and I’m here to tell you that it goes two ways,” Spicer warned. “We’re going to hold the press accountable, as well.”
“The American people deserve better," Spicer continued, "and as long as he serves as the messenger for this incredible movement, he will take his message directly to the American people, where his focus will always be.”
The gathered press were most shocked that Spicer ended the scolding and walked away from the podium without answering a single question.
“I’ve never seen a White House press secretary do that,” ABC News’s Jonathan Karl said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
As promised to them on Saturday, Spicer held his first full-length press conference on Monday and took media questions which often centered around the scolding they received. Yes, the same journalists who like to point out Trump's thin skin are having a tough time recognizing their own:


