Is anyone watching Spicer's press conference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:f you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

Well thought through post. I agree with your explanation. This is typical disinformation campaign. This is step 1 of Russification of American propaganda. It will get worse BUT unlike Russia he can't corral the press here and every American has a camera so the truth will eventually win out. In the age of twitter , periscope and FB you can't get away with patently false info and lies easily. They will quickly lose credibility but they can't quickly rebuild it.

I agree with all of the above but Trump is also behaving like a classic, controlling narvissist. Ask anyone who ever divorced one. They lie, exaggerate, project, make up facts, praise them self, tear down whomever they are divorcing, etc. oftentimes they are surrounded by enablers who walk on eggshells and help the narcissist wreak havoc and go after others. Anyone who has ever had a high conflict diborce knows this is how narcissists like Trump behave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:f you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

Well thought through post. I agree with your explanation. This is typical disinformation campaign. This is step 1 of Russification of American propaganda. It will get worse BUT unlike Russia he can't corral the press here and every American has a camera so the truth will eventually win out. In the age of twitter , periscope and FB you can't get away with patently false info and lies easily. They will quickly lose credibility but they can't quickly rebuild it.

I agree with all of the above but Trump is also behaving like a classic, controlling narvissist. Ask anyone who ever divorced one. They lie, exaggerate, project, make up facts, praise them self, tear down whomever they are divorcing, etc. oftentimes they are surrounded by enablers who walk on eggshells and help the narcissist wreak havoc and go after others. Anyone who has ever had a high conflict diborce knows this is how narcissists like Trump behave.

Don't forget he is literally Hitler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just visited fox news page on facebook. Scrolled down to their post from Spicer's briefing - almost all the comments are "finally someone telling us the truth" and "glad he's a strong speaker." and "the liberal media was lying." Feels like an alternate universe.

They must be bummed that Trump is already throwing him under the bus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/politics/trump-white-house-briefing-inauguration-crowd-size.html?_r=0

"But most of his remarks were devoted to attacking the news media. And Mr. Spicer picked up the theme later in the day in the White House briefing room. But his appearance, according to the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s thinking, went too far, in the president’s opinion."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just visited fox news page on facebook. Scrolled down to their post from Spicer's briefing - almost all the comments are "finally someone telling us the truth" and "glad he's a strong speaker." and "the liberal media was lying." Feels like an alternate universe.

My lone comfort, and it is scant, is that I am 100% convinved that the paid posters meant to turn opinions are very, very active right now. I'm not saying all those people there right now are paid, but I believe the paid people speak in such a way as to give a dwindling number cover to speak strongly in favor of Donald. They've been very active on here, too.

[Anonymous]

The Washington Post is doing a great new service for this instance:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/21/sean-spicer-held-a-press-conference-he-didnt-take-questions-or-tell-the-whole-truth/?hpid=hp_rhp-bignews4_fix-spicer-1110pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.fd0b763a2fb6

It won't turn the hard core kool-aid drinkers, but perhaps for the moderates it will help provide an extra layer of proof of lies.

Ultimately, the media need to call this what it is - liars are lying. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Michael Moore said the Vegas odds had him at 4-1 surviving the first six months. I wonder if they changed the odds after the press conference?

Michael Moore correctly warned based on his intimate knowledge of MI blue collar voters that Trump would end up winning the election. But since then his pronouncements have been bizarre ranging from Trump not taking the oath of office even though he won the election, faithless electors, etc to not lasting in office for more than six months. He really has gone off the reservation.

Unfortunately, some stuff that he does say receives little attention though it deserves more focus like his statement yesterday that the Democrats need to junk their leadership and have a new group of younger leaders who have not failed take the helm.

[Anonymous]

I did my part to back the press by purchasing annual subscriptions to The Washington Post, The NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The press has my support to report the truth!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No he was was angry about the MLK bust--shame on media for trying yet again to manipulate

Ouch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michael Moore said the Vegas odds had him at 4-1 surviving the first six months. I wonder if they changed the odds after the press conference?

Michael Moore correctly warned based on his intimate knowledge of MI blue collar voters that Trump would end up winning the election. But since then his pronouncements have been bizarre ranging from Trump not taking the oath of office even though he won the election, faithless electors, etc to not lasting in office for more than six months. He really has gone off the reservation.

Unfortunately, some stuff that he does say receives little attention though it deserves more focus like his statement yesterday that the Democrats need to junk their leadership and have a new group of younger leaders who have not failed take the helm.

No one takes Moore seriously, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did my part to back the press by purchasing annual subscriptions to The Washington Post, The NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The press has my support to report the truth!

The NYTimes and WSJ are Trump enablers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did my part to back the press by purchasing annual subscriptions to The Washington Post, The NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The press has my support to report the truth!

The NYTimes and WSJ are Trump enablers.

Lol. I think the NYT hates him, so they tell lots of tall tales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No he was was angry about the MLK bust--shame on media for trying yet again to manipulate

Ouch.

It was bizarre that eh was carrying on about that as well because they quickly made a correction to the original report. Unlike FOX News or Breitbart who rarely admit they were wrong despite frequently being wrong, who rarely do corrections or retractions even when they are caught in blatant lies, which is every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure he was trying to call them out on their misrepresentation and attempts to portray him in a negative light. I've heard lots of talk about the numbers, but has anyone mentioned how the Time reporter suggested that Trump removed the MLK bust from the Oval Office? That was a ridiculous accusation to tweet out and be wrong about it.

Agree but the Time reporter apologized Friday night saying SS agent blocked his view and Sean Spicer tweeted "apology accepted" then proceeds to freak out about it in a presser the next day. Either way, wouldn't it have been better to just ignore it and start working on the plan to systematically destroy our country. This is small ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did my part to back the press by purchasing annual subscriptions to The Washington Post, The NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The press has my support to report the truth!

I recently bought a subscription to WAPO but am definitely considering adding the WSJ too. I can access NY Times from work account. I am a hopeless moderate in a sea of extremism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michael Moore said the Vegas odds had him at 4-1 surviving the first six months. I wonder if they changed the odds after the press conference?

Michael Moore correctly warned based on his intimate knowledge of MI blue collar voters that Trump would end up winning the election. But since then his pronouncements have been bizarre ranging from Trump not taking the oath of office even though he won the election, faithless electors, etc to not lasting in office for more than six months. He really has gone off the reservation.

Unfortunately, some stuff that he does say receives little attention though it deserves more focus like his statement yesterday that the Democrats need to junk their leadership and have a new group of younger leaders who have not failed take the helm.

Hmmmm. I'm not so sure what he said about the oath is a bizarre pronouncement. I've been wondering why an obviously atheist person needed to use his own Bible on top of the Lincoln bible to take the oath of office.

I wouldn't put it past Donald J. Trump to have never put his hand on any Bible when he swore to uphold the Constitution.