Saturday, July 22, 2017

No Longer A Target



The Spicer Show has been cancelled. No one is cheering and no one is mourning. Daniel Dale, the Toronto Star's Washington correspondent, writes:

Spicer had become an improbable celebrity, an afternoon sensation whose televised briefings produced almost no useful information but drew more viewers than General Hospital. Trump, a television obsessive who often watched The Spicer Show himself, bragged about Spicer’s ratings as if they were evidence of his own popularity.

Viewers were tuning in for the political equivalent of the four-alarm-fire coverage on the local newscast, and other aides knew the briefings were going badly even if the president didn’t. When new communications director Anthony Scaramucci and new press secretary Sarah Sanders took the podium after Spicer’s resignation, it was the first on-camera briefing in three weeks.

The cause of the fire was Spicer's painful willingness to be Donald Trump's official liar:

Spicer’s first post-inauguration briefing set the tone for the rest. Slamming the news media for alleged unfairness, he declared that Trump’s inauguration had drawn the largest crowd of all time, “period.” It was not even close.

The performance was aimed, as many of Spicer’s future deceitful performances were, at an audience of one. Spicer often appeared to be striving to please Trump rather than serve any particular strategic goal. 

And, regardless of what Spicer said, Donald Trump regularly undermined him:

His attempts at spin were regularly undermined by Trump himself. After Spicer insisted that Trump’s policy on travellers from seven (later six) Muslim countries was “not a travel ban,” Trump tweeted: “I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!” 

Yesterday, Spicer told Trump to go to hell. His declaration will have no effect on Trump. But, at least, Spicer will no longer be a target on Saturday Night Live

Image: CNN

3 comments:

the salamander said...

.. I keep thinking of the Potemkin Villages.. the Mafia front companies.. the late night talk shows re aliens. Spicer was part of the scam.. the pretension of MAGA.. but Trump tired of the fake effort.. or Bannon did. Told them to just turn off the cameras and tell the news to eat cake & suck eggs. The grand larceny over in Russia sucked in the greedy creeps.. as did the wondrous lure of the Washington swamp life.. the multitude of troughs to clamber into. I can't speak for overseas.. but what I see going on in North American 'politics' & fake public service, disgusts me. Lobbyists & law firms thriving as dangerous parasites alongside Big Energy.. none of whom give a damn about the citizenry.. or reality. I mean c'mon man.. Where is Andrew Scheer or Justin Trudea.. while a meatsack like Ezra Levant exchanges hate & bigotry with Alex Jones? As long as they have a boogie man or two.. and grifters like Paul Godfrey to watch their back.. it's open season on Canadians. I had to look up The Lethbridge Times.. who's 'editor in chief' tweeted that Julie Paquette spent 2 weeks in prison for assault with a weapon. But on inspection Cabot Mackenzie is a Rebel Media ex.. there is no such newspaper - and he must have mistaken the International Space Station for a prison.. as he lives in Toronto perhaps in Ezra's basement. This is where we are today.. btw Canadaland published a stunning series of transcripts form the Levant - Jones joint on air fellatio session - should be required read aloud in Parliament - simply a disgusting crude affront to any real Canadian.. & thanks to Canadaland for confronting these parasites

Owen Gray said...

Canadaland has been the source of some important stories, salamander. Its excellent work sends a signal that the Sean Spicers of the world -- and there are lots of them -- cannot keep the truth from making its way through the smoke and confusion.

Owen Gray said...

I'd like to publish your comment, Anon. But it needs to be initialled.