Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tells the New York Times that he “absolutely” regrets berating members of the media who accurately reported that President Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd size was smaller than the inauguration crowd size for former President Barack Obama.
“In an interview on Monday morning, Mr. Spicer said he now regrets one of his most infamous moments as press secretary: His decision to charge into the White House briefing room in January and criticize accurate news reports that Barack Obama’s inauguration crowd was bigger than President Donald J. Trump’s,” reports the Times’Glenn Thrush.
So yeah, he lied. It was a deliberate lie. It was a blatant lie. It was an obvious lie. And he chose in his first official press briefing, to be a dick about it to people who weren’t “out to get him” they had just reported the truth. And yeah, some of the people who were in that room and had to listen to that berating and bullying aren’t all that fine with Hollywood trying to make Spicer seem “cool and hip.” People like April Ryan.
“April Ryan, you’re in the White House Press Corps, you asked many a question of Sean Spicer — did you find that funny?” host Baldwin asked.
“No, not at all,” Ryan replied. “I actually felt sorry for Sean last night. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”
“Let me explain why,” she continued. “Sean has left the White House and we’ve heard many television networks say they’re not going to hire him as a contributor. Sean is viewed as someone who lied. Sean told everyone there’s fake news, and now he’s going to get a job and they’re not hiring him, so it looks like they’re trying to re-brand him, change his image. But there’s a lot of healing that needs to take place or redemption that needs to happen on his part.”
“You know, that’s the highest office in the land,” she explained, “and when you purposefully go out and change the facts or support something that’s not true, people’s lives are on the line every day and those issues about those lives are in that building. And to lie is something deep and not to be joked about. ”
So these people are “triggered” they’re standing up for truth. Literal truth. Observable Truth.
I can see that Hollywood Media is somewhat less concerned with that and in fact their embracing of Spicer — from their perspective — was really really funny. I mean, yeah, it really was — but it’s also fully understandable that the butt of this joke was not only Spicer, it’s was the existence of facts.
Even despite their obfuscation, there are some basic observations here that do make sense. Flyover/Trumpland doesn’t really see clear reflections of themselves on network TV that often. Most of the shows are based on the coasts, where the media themselves are located. Although you may have the occasional Friday Night Lights, you have situations like all of Dick Wolf’s stream of city themed shows from Chicago Fire to PD, Med and Justice. You have directly New York shows like Blue Bloods to L.A. based shows like NCIS:Los Angeles.
So sure, other than Reality based shows like Swamp People, Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch and the now canceled 19 Kids and Counting, and Duck Dynasty — the Redlands don’t really get to see much of themselves in the creative portion of TV media.
But something the Trumpsters forget, is that most people in Hollywood aren’t from Hollywood. Besides those who are second or third generation like George Clooney Drew Barrymore or Gweneth Paltrow, they weren’t for the most part born in Trumpland. For example Jennifer Lawrence who takes quite a bit of abuse in the article is from Louisville, Kentucky. Melissa McCarthy is from Plainfield, Illinois. Stephen Colbert was born in Washington D.C. but grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. I mean, these people don’t hate Trumpland, they are FROM Trumpland. They had to leave because the truth is Trumpland isn’t a place where talent and creativity is appreciated. They all left to find places where they could have a career — they meant going to the coasts, and no they don’t bring that much of watch they functionally had to abandon with them because “Hollywood” is what happens when all the Glee kids who were bullied for years in school for being “arty” finally grow up and become powerful, well-known and wealthy based largely on their own skills, talent and hard work despite how many times the Trumkpin’s gave them swirlies and called them “Losers.”
I can understand then, as they see many of Hollywood comment negatively on them, Trumpeters being somewhat put out by that. If can understand them feeling left out. They are.
I mean, it’s almost like how black people feel about being relegated to side-kick and “funny best friend” roles for, well, decades. It’s like how women feel in Hollywood when they look at their paychecks. And I can understand that when it comes to mainstream new media, Conservatives and their ideas, aren't as fully represented as they might like them to be.
They aren’t dominant. They’re relegated to the side-kick.
If you watch CNN the hosts are clearly not Conservatives. They just aren’t. But CNN has an interesting Affirmative Action strategy for Conservatives. They keep a “Set-Aside” slot for them to appear as part of their panels. They’ll usually have the host, like Don Lemon or Anderson Cooper who primarily functions as a moderator for everyone else, they’ll have a reporter or correspondent who is a subject matter expert like a Former Federal Prosecutor or FBI agent, they’ll have a Democrat like Paul Begala or Van Jones, they’ll have a Republican like a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio supporter such as Ana Navarro, and then they’ll have a Trumpster. That used to be Kaylee McEnany, Corey Lewandowski, Boris Ephsteyn or Jeffrey Lord. These days it’s Rick Santorum or Paris Denard.
The Trumpeter doesn’t usually dominate the discussion, they don’t usually “Win” the argument, but usually, they get a seat at the table whether they honestly deserve one or not.
Sitting in the corner like that I guess they feel a bit put upon. Getting yelled at when they say blatantly lies can be grating. They feel discriminated against and dismissed so sure, they had to build their safe havens for their craziest conservative ideas like Fox News, InfoWars, Breitbart as they’re being fed racist propaganda from RT and Sputnik News. Sorry, but CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and 98% of all scientists don’t cotton to the idea that it’s “Insensitive to bring up Global Warming’” in the middle of weather events that never ever happened before, and probably wouldn’t if not for Global. Freaking. Warming. I get that.
They’re almost like HBCUs. Well, except for the delusion and deception.
And the glorification of lies.
If they feel “put down” by the media, maybe they need to stop embracing those lies and learn to accept provable reality. Sure, there will still be disagreements, but they won't be based on bullshit anymore.
But I’m not holding my breath on that happening any time soon.