How the #FakeNews is made, Reince Priebus--WH Press Briefing edition

There’s a #FakeNews story starting up on Twitter accusing incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus of making major changes to the daily White House press briefing.

It all started when Sopan Deb of CBS News posted this excerpt from Priebus’ interview with Hugh Hewitt this morning with a “!!” and the quote, “…I think it’s time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House”:

https://twitter.com/sopandeb/status/809063513675235328

This was then interpreted to mean that Priebus wanted to do away with the daily White House press briefing altogether, for which there’s no proof. Here’s Rosie Gray from BuzzFeed, for example. Note the number of RTs:

https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/809070735545221120

Um, no. He was clearly talking about changing around the seating chart, which Gray noted an hour later. Again, note the number of RTs:

I only see him saying that formal reserved assigned seating may change, not eliminating the briefing. Am I missing part of the transcript? https://t.co/4UAo75hfMg

— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) December 14, 2016

https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/809085553404739585

It’s the fake news that gets shared, the correction not so much. Users ended up sharing Gray’s first post, spreading the #FakeNews:

he'll never have a press conference — too hard for him, too likely he'll screw up in major ways

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) December 14, 2016

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.@RosieGray Of course. No WH briefings or press conferences. Rule without accountability. There a word for this? Starts with A or F?

— Mark Green (@markjgreen) December 14, 2016

And so the long road to decline begins… https://t.co/suHa9fUo33

— Jeff Selingo (@jselingo) December 14, 2016

https://twitter.com/JamesPMorrison/status/809083902081912832

As I've been saying, reporters will be out of the White House before this is over https://t.co/gXd7vVVoqQ

— Aaron Pressman (@ampressman) December 14, 2016

Deb then went on to link Priebus’ comments on the seating chart to Trump wanting to change libel laws, which too was a stretch:

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/809066766781583361

Hugh Hewitt pushed back, resulting in this exchange:

What in the world does changing seating in WH Press room have to do with libel laws? https://t.co/4AeDSvc0CA

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 14, 2016

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/809069544476213248

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/809069681449586689

All legit issues, just unconnected to shaking up entitled legacy press. Look, @reince does 15 minutes w/ me today and it's more substantive https://t.co/WPbN9WLiZr

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 14, 2016

@SopanDeb than 90% of interviews he's done since 11/8. Legacy press deeply biased in many cases, not interested in issues in others.

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 14, 2016

It will be great if new WH engages with new media –including opponents– in a way POTUS never has.

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 14, 2016

Deb agreed with Hewitt, but added:

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/809074339077353472

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/809075531350216704

So there you have it. One comment about maybe changing who gets to ask questions at the daily WH briefing somehow morphed into the Trump administration refusing to answer questions along with concern over Trump fundamentally changing the 1st Amendment.

Pace yourselves, people. There’s no way this level of outrage over every tiny detail is healthy.

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