Trump, spokesman slam US media over inaugural crowd coverage

Michael Mathes, with Jerome Cartillier

AFP NewsJanuary 22, 2017

ricky l

9 seconds ago

White House press secretary Sean Spicer doubled down on the accusation, using his first press conference in the White House briefing room to blast the journalists seated before him for "deliberately false reporting" on crowd size.
"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period!" Spicer said, his loud and abrasive tone catching nearly everyone in the room off guard.
"These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong."
Spicer left the briefing without taking questions.
=====

"deliberately false reporting" on crowd size ---- but there are 2 photos - one in 2017 and another in 2009 that show the crowd size.

Are the photos doctored?

Who is telling the truth?

ricky l

10 seconds ago

Actually the crowd size is not important - more for ego.

Crowd size is not an indication of effective governance.

It is an indication of popularity - which can change over time.

But "Integrity" is important --- who should we believe?
- ricky l
  
  10 seconds ago
  
  Integrity of Institutions is critical for effective governance.
  
  Policies must be communicated with integrity.
  
  Only with integrity, communication will be credible.
  
  Otherwise if integrity come under question, credibility will be at stake.
  
  Effective governance break down.
- - ricky l
    
    11 seconds ago
    
    So coming to the dispute and the underlying integrity :-
    
    (1) Is the photos doctored?
    (2) If the photos are not doctored, were they taken at times that are not representative of the truth?
    
    Only when facts are established, then it will reveal who is credible.
    
    Credibility is the pinnacle of effective governance.
  - - ricky l
      
      now
      
      Policies should be formulated based on facts.
      
      If policies are not anchor on facts, it will be disastrous.
    - Pope: I'll judge Trump after we see what he does
      
      Associated PressJanuary 22, 2017
      
      Pope Francis celebrates a Mass at the end of the Jubilee (Holy Year) of the Dominicans, inside the Basilica of St. John Lateran, in Rome, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. (Giorgio Onorati/ANSA via AP)
      
      VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis says he'll wait to see what U.S. President Donald Trump does before forming an opinion about him.
      
      In an interview published Saturday evening by Spanish newspaper El Pais, Francis says he doesn't like "judging people early. We'll see what Trump does."
      
      Asked about populist-style political leaders emerging in the United States and Europe, Francis warned against seeking a savior in times of crisis.
      
      He said Adolf Hitler in the 1930s' Germany "was voted for by the people and then he destroyed the people."
      
      Francis laments that in crises "we look for a savior to give us back identity, and we defend ourselves with walls, barbed-wire fences, from other peoples."
      
      He was interviewed Friday at the Vatican at the same time as Trump's inauguration ceremony.
    - Kellyanne Conway cites ‘alternative facts’ in tense interview with Chuck Todd over false crowd size claims
      
      Dylan Stableford
      
      Yahoo NewsJanuary 23, 2017
      View photos
      
      Kellyanne Conway prepares to appear on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
      
      President Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway clashed with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on NBC Sunday over the administration’s false assertion that Trump’s inauguration had the largest crowd in history.
      
      “You’re saying it’s a falsehood,” Conway told Todd. “Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts.”
      
      On Saturday, Spicer used his first official statement to castigate the media for what he called “deliberately false reporting” on the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration.
      
      Follow
      
      Meet the Press
      
      ✔@MeetThePress
      
      "Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods," Chuck Todd tells Pres. Trump's counselor Kellyanne Conway this morning. WATCH:
      
      11:03 PM - 22 Jan 2017
      
      29,714 Retweets
      
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      “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” Spicer told reporters in the White House Briefing Room. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”
      
      Spicer was particularly incensed about photos shared on social media by members of the press comparing the crowd at Trump’s ceremony with President Barack Obama’s eight years before.
      
      “Photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall,” Spicer said.
      
      Despite the clear visual difference between the two inauguration crowds, Spicer declared that Trump had the largest crowd in history.
      
      New White House press secretary Sean Spicer blasts media over reports on inauguration size
      
      Delivering his first statement to the White House press corp, new press secretary Sean Spicer took the occasion to blast the press over reports on the size of the crowd at Friday's Inauguration.
      
      “You did not answer the question of why the president asked the White House press secretary to come out in front of the podium for the first time and utter a falsehood,” Todd said to Conway on Sunday. “Why did he do that? It undermines the credibility of the entire White House press office on day one.”
      
      “No, it doesn’t,” Conway replied. “Don’t be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck.”
      
      Todd laughed at Conway’s assertion that Spicer’s claims were “alternative facts.”
      
      “Wait a minute, alternative facts?” Todd said. “Alternative facts are not facts, they’re falsehoods.”
      
      Conway tried to pivot to bigger issues that concern Americans by rattling off partisan talking points.
      
      “Chuck, do you think it’s a fact or not that millions of people have lost their plans or health insurance or their doctors under President Obama?” Conway said. “Do you think it’s a fact that everything we heard from these women yesterday happened on the watch of Barack Obama? He was president for eight years, Donald Trump’s been here for about eight hours.”
      
      View photos
      
      Kellyanne Conway gets ready to appear on “Meet the Press.” (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
      
      “These are the facts I want the press corps to cover,” she said.
      
      “That was not what yesterday was about,” Todd said. “You sent the press secretary out there to utter a falsehood on the smallest, pettiest thing.”
      
      Conway then continued the crowd-size crusade.
      
      “I don’t think you can prove those numbers one way or the other,” she said. “There’s no way to quantify crowds, we all know that.”
      
      Her response drew more laughter from the “Meet the Press” host.
      
      “You can laugh at me all you want,” Conway said. “I think the way you just laughed at me is very symbolic of the way we’re treated by the press.”
      
      “I’m not laughing,” Todd said. “I’m just befuddled.”
      
      Todd isn’t the only one. On “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace grilled White House chief of staff Reince Priebus over the Trump’s administration’s obsession with the size of the crowd at his inauguration.
      
      “President Trump said in his inaugural address that every decision he makes will be to benefit American families,” Wallace said. “How does arguing about crowd size do that?”
      
      “It really isn’t about crowd size. What it’s about is honesty in the media,” Priebus replied. “The media from day one has been talking about delegitimizing the election. Talking about the Russians, talking about everything you can imagine except the fact that we need to move this country forward.”
      
      Wallace was unmoved.
      
      “You say this is about honesty,” the Fox host said. “But there’s another issue here though, Reince, and that is the president’s honesty. Two things he said yesterday were just flat wrong.”
      
      One, Wallace said, was the false claim that the crowd at the inauguration stretched all the way back to the Washington Monument.
      
      “Take a look at those pictures,” Wallace said, ordering his producers to display aerial images of Obama’s 2009 inauguration and Trump’s on Friday. “Which one is bigger?”
      
      — With Yahoo News’ Colin Campbell contributing reporting
      
      ____