White House press secretary Sean Spicer had some unkind words for reporters this morning, saying on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he thinks most of them just want to become “YouTube stars.”
Spicer accused reporters of asking the same question over and over in the hopes of getting a good soundbite that will boost their own profile.
“There’s a lot of them that want to become YouTube stars and ask some snarky question that’s been asked eight times,” Spicer said. “And that’s their right to do it. But it’s our job to make sure that we’re providing updates and readouts of what the president is doing and the advances he is making on his agenda.”
“And so there is a bit of snarkiness now with the press because, again, a lot of them are more focused about getting their clip on air than they are of actually taking the time to understand an issue,” he continued.
Spicer said this is precisely why he prefers the off-camera briefings: there is less “performance art.”
“The nice thing about turning the cameras off sometimes, and I find this, is that it is not ‘performance art,’ as you call it, that you end up having, I think sometimes, a more substantive discussion about actual issues because they’re not trying to get their clip,” Spicer opined. ”
They’re not trying to figure out, ‘How do I get on TV? How do I ask some snarky question?’ You can actually focus on the substance of the issues.”
