The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.16 Why The Trump White House Cancelled "Must-See TV"...

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to, not technically, the Philip DeFranco Show. As I mentioned last week, the PDS is on a hiatus this week, but today and on Thursday we have solo focus stories. And today we're going to be taking a look at White House press briefings because seemingly over the past year and a half they have almost completely disappeared. Or, as the New York Times put it, White House press briefings during the Trump administration have gone from

Starting point is 00:00:19 must-see TV to practically cancelled after just two seasons. And on-camera press briefings have actually become so rare under Trump that the administration currently owns the record for the longest time span without one. But who or what is to blame for the lack of briefings? Well, it kind of depends on who you ask. Some of the president's supporters claim that the press treats Sarah Sanders,

Starting point is 00:00:36 the current White House Press Secretary, unfairly, and that's a sentiment that Trump has echoed. In January, we saw the president tweet, "'The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the, quote, "'podium much anymore is that the press covers her "'so rudely and inaccurately, "'in particular certain members of the press. "'I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway.

Starting point is 00:00:50 "'Most will never cover us fairly, "'and hence the term fake news.'" But others have claimed the White House is trying to be less transparent and accessible by holding fewer briefings. And actually, after Trump's previous tweet that we mentioned, the White House Correspondents Association released a statement of their own which read,

Starting point is 00:01:02 "'This retreat from transparency and accountability "'sets a terrible precedent. "' precedent being able to question the press secretary Or other senior government officials publicly helps the news media tell Americans what their most powerful representatives are doing in their name So who is right is this White House less accessible than other administrations or does the media really get more heated with Trump's press secretaries and other? Administrations past well there's data that suggests that neither of those reasons actually tell the full story right now Trump's press secretary is Sarah Sanders, but Sanders wasn't Trump's first choice for the role. As you may remember, when Trump took office

Starting point is 00:01:30 in January of 2017, Sean Spicer was tapped for that role. And while Spicer held that position, White House press briefings were held pretty regularly. Spicer averaging around 17 briefings a month, which was on par with Obama's last press secretary, Josh Earnest. But instead of delivering news on policy or the president's schedule, which was kind of typical

Starting point is 00:01:45 under past presidents, Spicer's performances sometimes became the headline. For example, there was that time where Spicer made headlines after he insisted that Trump's executive order, which barred people from seven Muslim majority nations from entering the United States, was not a travel ban. This despite the fact that the president

Starting point is 00:01:57 had directly referred to the executive order as a ban on Twitter. And you might remember, SNL made a pretty famous sketch about the incident. The travel ban is not a ban, which makes it not a ban. But you just called it a ban. Because I'm using your words. You said ban. You said ban. Now I'm saying

Starting point is 00:02:12 it back to you. The president tweeted, and I quote, if the ban were announced with a one-week notice... Yeah, exactly. You just said that. He's quoting you. It's your words. There was also that time right out of the gate where he made this bold claim. This was the largest audience to ever witness

Starting point is 00:02:28 an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe. Although regarding that, Spicer did eventually tell the New York Times he regretted making that statement, but with incidents like that, it was under Spicer that the White House press briefings became must-see TV. I mean, just a month into the job,

Starting point is 00:02:42 Spicer's briefings averaged 4.3 million viewers on major cable news networks. When Spicer was on TV, audiences across Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, they grew by an average of 10%. In fact, by February of 2017, the press briefings even gained so much attention that they outperformed long-running soap operas like General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful. According to a study, Fox, MSNBC, and CNN each aired at least 93% of Spicer's first 48 press briefings. I mean, we're just talking wild numbers. To make a comparison so you understand what a big deal this is,

Starting point is 00:03:09 President Obama's last press secretary, Josh Earnest, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC only televised 2% of his briefings. But of course, Spicer, as we already know, is no longer Trump's press secretary. In June of 2017, Spicer started to make fewer appearances. You hear these rumors starting up that Trump wasn't happy with him, and then a month later, Spicer announced his resignation.

Starting point is 00:03:26 And it was reported that Spicer left his position after telling Trump he strongly disagreed with the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. And then what followed is you had Sarah Sanders being named Spicer's replacement, and shortly after, the briefings started to become scarcer. From January 2018 to November of that same year,

Starting point is 00:03:39 Sanders only gave 59 briefings. And once again, for comparison's sake, during those same months in 2010, Barack Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, held 95 briefings, comparison's sake, during those same months in 2010 Barack Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs held 95 briefings and in 2002 during that same period George W Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer held 85 briefings. But then that brings us back to last year where Sarah Sanders had fewer press briefings than any press secretary since briefings were first televised in 1995. And in recent months there have even been rumors that Sanders will end briefings altogether. And some pundits have speculated that Sanders would make this move because reporters have been, quote,

Starting point is 00:04:05 "'grandstanding' at press conferences." In other words, some feel that reporters are trying to cause a scene by getting into heated debates with Sanders that would make for good TV. And while I will say, it is definitely not hard to find clips of Sanders getting into tense back and forths with reporters, there's data that shows

Starting point is 00:04:16 that Sanders doesn't actually average the most contentious exchanges in her press briefings. According to data released in October from the American Presidency Project, it's actually Josh Earnest who holds that title. The project counted contentious exchanges as, quote, "...all statements suggesting doubts about honesty, completeness, bias, or deflecting and refusing to answer questions." Earnest averaged 13 per briefing, and Sanders averaged a little more than 10.

Starting point is 00:04:36 So yes, while Sanders may get into heated back and forths, these tense exchanges are not unprecedented, and they're not at a record level. Now, pundits on the opposite side of the spectrum, they argue that the White House is limiting press briefings in an attempt to be less accessible. But on that note, Sarah Sanders has claimed that Donald Trump is one of the most accessible presidents that we have ever had. So what does the data say? Well, it's kind of complicated.

Starting point is 00:04:54 Martha Joint Kumar, a political science professor at Towson University, published a study about the past six presidents and their exchanges with reporters during the first 18 months of their presidency. And in this study, Kumar found that Trump actually had the least amount of solo press conferences compared to Obama, GW, Clinton, Bush Senior, and Reagan

Starting point is 00:05:09 during the first 18 months of each president's first term. But Kumar's study also found that Donald Trump had the second most short question and answer sessions and interviews during that same time period. So the data there shows kind of a mixed bag. Trump seemed more likely to stop on the White House lawn to answer questions, but less likely to hold a solo conference with reporters.

Starting point is 00:05:23 But one thing Kumar's study did not acknowledge was Trump's preferential treatment when it comes to the interviews he's willing to give. By October of 2017, Trump had given 18 interviews to Fox, and during that same time period, Trump only gave two interviews to NBC, one to CBS, and zero to CNN. Another thing Kumar's study didn't look into

Starting point is 00:05:38 was the use of social media, and particularly the use of Twitter. Although on that note, Twitter was created in 2006, so Obama's the only other president to have used the platform during his presidency. But also regarding, Twitter was created in 2006, so Obama is the only other president to have used the platform during his presidency. But also regarding that, the way in which Trump and Obama use Twitter has differed. Trump, for example, has used Twitter to make announcements

Starting point is 00:05:52 that the Obama administration would have typically made in press briefings. For example, Trump has announced changes to his staff on Twitter. By the time this video goes up, there are probably newer examples, but you might remember in March of last year when Trump announced that Rex Tillerson

Starting point is 00:06:02 was no longer Secretary of State in the tweet that read, "'Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job. Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service. Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all. Trump has also announced major changes in policy on Twitter. Like in July of 2017 when he made that announcement about transgender individuals in the military. And I mention that not to denounce or applaud any individual announcements, but as a way to say, you know, it's hard to make a complete one-to-one comparison.

Starting point is 00:06:29 If you look at press briefings, or in this case, Twitter as information delivery devices, it is important to keep in mind, we are in a time of different possibilities and different avenues. So with that said, with Trump taking on a larger role in making announcements himself through Twitter, it leaves us with a question.

Starting point is 00:06:42 Do we even need White House press briefings? Well, Sarah Sanders has suggested that maybe we don't need them as much as they have been used in the past. In an interview with Fox News in September, she said this. I always think if you can hear directly from the president and the press has the chance to ask the president of the United States questions directly, that's infinitely better than talking to me. But at the same time, you have former press secretaries who have argued that getting rid of press briefings maybe isn't a good thing. Zanna Perino, who is press secretary under George W. Bush, told NPR that just having regular briefings can actually impact decision making amongst cabinet members. Internally, when the cabinet or the staff knows that the press secretary has to go out and answer questions from the press, it can force decision making.

Starting point is 00:07:22 Or consensus. But ultimately that brings us to the part of the video where I pass the question off to you guys. Do you think we should get rid of White House press briefings? Do you think that reporters have been trying to grandstand to make headlines to create must-see TV or they're just trying to question things? I guess do you see this as streamlining or hiding and lacking transparency? Really any and all thoughts on this I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. Also while you're at it if you like this video, you to support it be sure to hit that like button if you're new here you want More of these daily dives be sure to hit that subscribe button

Starting point is 00:07:50 If you're not 100% filled in you want to watch the last Philip DeFranco show the last morning deep dive you can click or tap Right there to watch those but with that said I love your faces I hope you have a fantastic day of course remember the PDS is on break this week while I'm on a small Vacation, but I'll see you on Thursday with another brand new deep dive

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.16 Why The Trump White House Cancelled "Must-See TV"...

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