Alternative Facts

Yesterday Press Secretary Sean Spicer lashed out at the media for it's report of the attendance numbers at Trump's inauguration Friday.  To put the numbers in perspective let's do this:

• 1993 (Clinton): 800,000
• 1997 (Clinton): 250,000
• 2001 (Bush): 300,000
• 2005 (Bush): 400,000
• 2009 (Obama): 1.8 Million
• 2013 (Obama): 1 Million
• 2017 (Trump): 250,000 (estimated)

Spicer went on the offensive against the media claiming that the attendance figures where the largest ever recorded.

He claims the photo comparison (see below) was a purposeful misrepresentation by the media to divert attention from the fact that The Donald has now become the 45th President of the United States.

Source: BBC.com

It's not like every media source photoshopped people out of the picture, even live shots at the inauguration showed exactly what the still shots showed.  Trump was also quoted as saying he saw what he thought was 1-1.5 million people, but definitely not true.  I'm not going to call him a liar for that because from his vantage point, proven from camera shots from the stage, it does look like the entire Mall was full.  

Besides the Spicer drama, another member of the Trump team stepped up to add to the madness.  Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to President Trump, went tooth and nail against Chuck Todd on Meet the Press about Spicer and the attendance numbers:

Of course the first thing she attacked, instead of talking about Spicer, was to talk about the story from the press that the bust of Martin Luther King was removed from the Oval Office (the Press Pool did admit to it as a mistake because of a door blocking their view and made sure to let people know of that mistake).  After Todd gives her the business about not answering the question at all, she finally gets to the Spicer conference and says that Spicer was not saying falsehoods, but giving "Alternative Facts."  Alternative facts are not facts, they are lies.  Just because you added the word "facts" doesn't mean it now becomes true.

The problem with Spicer and Conway is that they are spinsters.  They do not answer anything directly and instead redirect the focus on their audience.  Anyone that gives them a question will get a sidestepped answer followed by a verbal barrage back at the person who asked them the question.

Does this mean we will be heading in a direction where the press pool at future conferences are going to be full of Jeff Gannon-type reporters to give Trump and Spicer softball questions?  Is Conway going to continue to flip everything said back to the interviewees?  Who is behind all of this anyways?

I'm never a fan of conspiracy theories, but if there is one to start than I am sure it is this:  Spicer and Conway are just the messengers taking their lead from Steve Bannon, Trump's Chief Advisor and former executive chair of Breitbart News.  If there is anyone to create a propagandist spin and blame everyone else except Trump, it will be Bannon.  Bannon will be the real life version of Doug Stamper from House of Cards.  His control of the team will be ruthless and he will spin everything in their favor with hopes of utterly destroying anyone in their way.  How much Trump will have a hand in it remains to be seen.  The tone of this administration is already starting to rear it's head and it's definitely ugly and frightening.