I agree with past press secretaries that briefings were probably important in helping to get the message out - but that was also before social media for many of them. In this Administration the media gets to see and hear from the President constantly through press availabilities, and every day via Twitter. More importantly, the American people hear directly from their President every day. Hearing directly from him and knowing exactly what is on his mind is much more important than from me at the podium. And if not the President, I believe subject matter experts such as agency heads and cabinet secretaries provide much more substantive information. Also just to correct you - people from this Administration are on many different outlets all the time, not just FOX.

I’d also note that we held a press conference today, at the World Economic Forum, and … only 2 or 3 of the questions were on the topic of the economy. In addition, CNN and MSNBC - who are generally the loudest in their complaints about basically everything to do with access - didn’t even carry it.